Yellow-Green Bruises

I
don’t think I knew how yellow-green a bruise could be. I mean,
playing softball has given me my fair share of blue-ish, purple
bruises, but the one that wrapped around my best friend’s torso was
a whole other story. My friend, Janie, had been riding shotgun in her
sister’s car when another driver ran a red light and spun their car
into the side of a guardrail. I sat at school, wondering why she
hadn’t shown up to math class that morning. When I heard the news,
my stomach dropped. It was horrifying not to be able to get a hold of
Janie that day, or know the details of what had happened or where
they were now. And I was mad, too, when I did find out what happened,
because one driver’s poor actions almost killed my friend. I
thought, how could someone endanger a person’s life like that? I
realized that no matter how well I drove and adhered to the laws, I
was vulnerable to any other driver that decided to take a risk on the
road near me. Each of us are susceptible to a horrible accident, just
like Janie’s brush with horror on a normal drive to school. In a
world that is growing so much, it is what happens inside the vehicle
that has the power to turn a car into a deadly weapon. Students
learning to drive need to understand the potential of their actions
and be educated on the many variables on the road that may pose as
threats. I see so many people on the road today with their cellphone
in one hand. I know a lot of people personally who don’t think it’s
a big deal to voice-to-text someone a message or send a Snapchat at a
red light. But every little thing done on a phone while driving is a
distraction! Maybe it doesn’t seem dangerous to look down briefly
while stopped, because what harm could you do? But not paying
attention could still cost you in that situation. My cousin escaped
being rear-ended because he was present enough to see that the car
approaching from behind wasn’t slowing down, and he moved out of
the way quickly and safely enough to avoid any injury. He wouldn’t
have been so fortunate if he had been looking down at his phone. In a
world of technology, both teenagers and adults need to choose to keep
their phone out of reach while driving, and eliminate that
distraction. Being mindful of how distracting a little screen can be
is important to lowering the number of avoidable deaths on the road.
And it’s so easy to turn off a phone, or hold onto a friend’s
while they’re driving. We don’t want to live in a world of
accidents. We don’t want to live in a world that values a text
message over the safety of the person driving next to them. We don’t
want to live in a world of yellow-green bruises.