Macabre Motorcycles

Screeching tires. Horns blasting. Quick, blurred flashes of the road whip by. Soon sirens scream as chaos ensues. Then the blinding, burn of pain searing the left arm. All these things my cousin depicted in his story of his almost fatal motorcycle crash. Had he not been wearing his helmet, the cop assured him that he would have died.

Many people can tell stories of themselves or loved ones being in dangerous situations on the road. My cousin’s car crash is one of many that I have witnessed or heard about. The importance of driver education and awareness on the road is the difference between life and death. Growing up my mother would always talk about driver safety and how important it was, even before I had a drivers permit. She wanted me to constantly be aware that, “you need to constantly have your eyes on the road because even if you are being safe, you need to watch out for other drivers.” She had been involved in a pretty serious car accident a few years before I was born due to a driver shifting into the wrong gear mid-drive. My mom had been driving normally when the car in front of her started to go in reverse, ultimately crashing into her car. By God’s grace she was not paralyzed or worse killed; however, she suffers from a bad neck injury as a result of the accident. This neck injury impairs her sleep and is the leading factor of many trips to the chiropractor.

Additionally, my own brother was driving home late one night and had almost made it home when he fell asleep at the wheel and crashed into a tree. Terror does not begin to describe how my parents felt when they found out. Due to safety measures such as airbags in the vehicle and the angle at which he hit the tree, he was not killed and only suffered minor injuries. This scenario caused the feeling of deja vu in my family; another one of my cousins’ had been killed from falling asleep at the wheel and crashing into a tree. While there have been many other crashes that I have heard in my life, these few examples have taught me the importance of driving safely.

Furthermore, it is seen as a rite of passage to receive a driver’s license, but that comes with the responsibility of your life and the life of others on the road. Personally, I have been in one accident as a result of another driver texting and driving. Simple mistakes to fix, yet so deadly. When practicing to receive my own license, I took all of these stories into consideration when being in control of the vehicle. I realized that my mother’s words that you are not the only one responsible for accidents has made me always alert when driving. Steps that I take personally to be a safer driver include: not doing anything distracting while driving, such as texting; driving the speed limit, regardless of what other cars are doing; and constantly checking weather conditions before going on the road. I am cautious to drive if I feel tired or if the weather looks bad. Not only do I want to ensure my safety, as a new driver I am aware that there are conditions on the road that can be out of my control.

Therefore, I believe that to stop the amount of car accidents that occur and the deaths that result from them, prior steps need to be taken. For example, new drivers should be required to take an additional drivers safety course alongside their required five hour course. I took an extra safety course to get my license not only to make my mother less worried, but to also educate myself more. Not every family can afford to pay for these extra courses, so they should be made free and easily accessible online to everyone. These types of courses emphasize how to maneuver through different scenarios on the road regarding weather conditions, car maintenance, right aways and what to be cautious of in cities (crosswalks) versus the countryside (wildlife). Although some car accidents are inevitable like my cousin’s motorcycle crash, other accidents such as my brother’s can be avoided. Every new driver should have it drilled in their head that it is important to not drive should you feel tired or unable. Not driving under the influence and not texting while driving are widely cautioned in schools. Not driving while tired or when weather conditions are in question should be stressed just as much due to some kids simply being unaware that these factors are equally important. Another factor that my generation needs to be aware of is how loud we play music while driving. Many kids in this generation consider music as an outlet or simply a distraction, but when they play their music so loud in their car that they cannot hear over it, a new safety hazard arises. The importance of being able to hear sirens from a cop, fire truck or ambulance and horns from other cars are crucial to driving safely. If a driver can not hear a siren or horn then they may miss important situations that arise.

Despite these suggestions seeming simple, they can be the difference between life and death. No one should have to lose a loved one or suffer a lifelong injury as a result of a car accident. Especially when those accidents may have been avoided with additional required driving courses, awareness of less commonly known driving impairments (such as weather) and the ability of the driver to hear by lowering their distractors (music). Every driver should take extra measures to be cautious on the road due to the significance of driver safety. Maybe one day we will live in a world where there are less screeching tires, horns blasting, and blurred lights.