Lives are at stake… Your life

I’ve never been in a car accident, I got my license just last year. I’ve been driving frequently… Well to be honest not much now with quarantine and school starting back up again, but I’d like to say I have at the very least some solid experience on the road. With only a year of off and on driving under my belt you would probably think I haven’t witnessed many accidents or even none at all… right?

I wish this were true. Whether it be driving, riding shotgun with friends, sitting in the rear as my family makes our daily runs, there was always a reckless driver among the streets. My family and I are even guilty of driving dangerously, I’d be willing to bet we all have at some point in our lives. But, I’m not here to point fingers, I am writing to caution others about the consequences of driving recklessly, especially when under the influence. It’s one thing to answer a call and put it on speaker, which is already terrifyingly dangerous in and of itself, but driving while intoxicated is like trying to ski blind down a forested mountain. I’m sure we are all aware of the consequences of driving recklessly, but the unabating frequency of fatal car crashes is what should be given the spotlight.

The first thing that comes to mind when we hear the word “accident” is a car accident. Think about it, there are near infinite meanings of the word accident and we still correlate it directly with driving. It’s used in scenarios where a young child punches another and has to defend his/her guilty self, it’s used to describe clumsy actions that we all do from time to time, the word is even a codeword for a baby laying waste to their diapers. “Accidents…” There is a reason dramatic and dreadful scenes on the road come to mind when we hear this word, it’s because they happen all the time.

I would also like to bring the severity of this issue into perspective. This may seem off topic but a great comparison is the atrocity and ferocity that is the nuclear bomb. In Nagasaki, on August 9, around 40,000 people were killed instantly by a nuclear bomb, the “fat man.” It is estimated that around 34,000 died later due to radiation – 74,000 people died in total. The nuclear bomb is one of the most deadly weapons in the human arsenal… and according to an article published by policyadvise.net, “In 2017, there were a total of 34,247 car crashes involving fatalities on US roads.” That is the equivalent of dropping a nuclear bomb on the US every… other… year. But there is a solution to this problem and it’s simple.

Let the distractions become distractions later. Get a designated driver and plan ahead. Social media and direct messages can wait. Nothing is more important when human lives are at stake. And it is not just others that are in danger… your own life could be at stake.