I Was In The Driver’s Seat

I Was In The Driver’s Seat

It was a March afternoon when the final bell rang signaling the end
of another grueling week as a high school senior. My friend and I
decided to go to my house to complete a project. We jumped in my 1998
Acura sedan and I cautiously pulled out of the parking lot. We hadn’t
quite gone a half mile down Durham Road when an enthralling new
statue in the distance caught my eyes. I turned my head toward the
left, then what felt like seconds later, my car crunched into the
bumper in front of us. I will never forget the sound, smell and
emotions we experienced in that moment as time appeared to cease. As
soon as I made sense of what just happened, I climbed through the
crunched driver’s side door and ran around to the passenger side to
check on my friend. Next, I ran over to check on the passengers in
the car I struck. Thankfully, nobody was injured and all the damage
was inflicted on the cars. Unfortunately, in that moment I became
part of a statistic. The National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration reports “rear-end crashes are the most frequently
occurring type of collision, accounting for about 29% of all crashes”
(2017).

My driving habits were forever changed from that incident as a naive
seventeen year old driver. Presently, I take steps every day to
ensure safe driving; being mindful and present, stowing electronic
devices away, and taking breaks when driving long distances. There
are many ways of becoming distracted while driving and as explained
above, a few seconds looking away from the road can cause an
accident. “Sending or reading a text takes your eyes off the road
for 5 seconds. At 55 mph, that is like driving the length of a
football field with your eyes closed” (NHTSA, 2018). That is why I
maintain my presence and attention on the road, as well as stowing
away my cell phone. Lastly, whether switching with another driver or
physically stopping, I always ensure to take breaks when driving long
distances. The Journal of Sleep Research Society states, “driving
while sleepy can make a driver approximately two-and-a-half times as
likely to have a motor vehicle accident (2017).

Minor accidents happen every day, despite the precautions some
people take. Unfortunately, “every year, roughly 1.3 million people
die in car accidents worldwide- an average of 3,287 deaths per day”
(SaferAmerica, 2019). We must ask the question- how can this
unimaginable number be reduced? The answer is education; people must
be informed about statistics and safe driving measures. Completion of
an education course teaches safe vehicle operations in different
conditions, stresses the importance of not operating under
impairment, allows for increased practice time on the road with an
experienced driver, and fosters the ability to foresee hazardous or
unsafe situations. Although I contributed to a statistic at
seventeen, that lesson allowed me to attend a driving safety course
and become more educated about the importance of safe driving.