You Never Think It Will Happen to You

You Never Think It Will Happen to You

In 2015, there were 3,477 people killed and an estimated additional 391,000 injured in crashes involving distracted drivers. The fatal crash rate for teens is 3 times greater than for drivers age 20 and over. Driver distraction is responsible for more than 58% of teen crashes. (Learn the Facts About Distracted Driving) If that alone doesn’t scare you, I don’t know what will.

When I think about car accidents, I think about everyone involved. I think about how extensive the injuries are of the people in the vehicles, and what kind of condition they’re in. Do they just have a couple of bruises, or are they at death’s door? What age are they? I also think about the family and friends of the person in the accident. I wonder if they have any parents around. I wonder if they have siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins, and pets. I wonder if they even have any family close to them. Are the parents upset? Did someone just lose their child, parent, spouse, or friend? Accidents don’t just effect those involved. It is like a cascading effect. For example, say a teenager gets into a nearly-fatal accident. Not only will that teen likely be apprehensive to get back behind the wheel, but their parents will be afraid to get another phone call delivering the news that no parent ever wants to hear. Everyone is afraid for them. Their parents, siblings, grandparents, aunts and uncles, and friends. For every accident, this can happen to two or more families. Let’s say a girl and two of her friends get into an accident, in the other car, there is a husband, wife, and three kids. That accident alone will affect anywhere from a few to many members of 5 different families. Each of the three girls have a family, and the husband and wife both have their own families. That’s only accidents with two cars involved. Imagine how many people could be affected in an accident with three, four, or more cars. Then you add in the people that pull over to help or check on those in an accident. The civilians, police officers, and paramedics for example. If more cars drive where the accident occurred, then debris can be shot at those on the accident site, for example, plastic. There is also the chance of drivers not involved in the accident becoming distracted trying to see what’s going on and either hitting a person on the side of the road or another car.

I’ve been in two accidents. One just involved me. The roads were icy and slushy, and I ended up hitting a tree in the ditch. The other accident involved me, my dad, and another woman. I was driving my grandma’s car to a mechanic to look things over just to make sure everything was still running smoothly. My dad was in the passenger seat. We are headed down I-75. All of a sudden, the car in front of us slams on its breaks. So naturally, I slam on mine. My grandma’s car was a little on the older side and didn’t have anti-lock breaks, so they locked up and we slid into the car in front of us. Apparently, two or three cars ahead of her had stopped because there was a dog walking down the middle of the road, and someone had pulled over to try and pick it up. The woman that we had rear-ended was partially pulled off the road already to avoid rear-ending the person who stopped in front of them. After we crash, there is chaos. Immediately, my dad asks if I’m okay. I can’t feel anything that hurts besides where my hands hit the dash, and where my seatbelt had saved me from flying forward into an extremely worse injury. I look over at my dad to make sure he is okay, and he is doing the same to me. The airbags went off, and I didn’t know this would happen at the time, but with that came powder. The powder caused irritation on both of our faces, and on my left forearm and elbow. Thankfully, it didn’t cause a burn. I though the powder was smoke, causing me to panic even more. He sounds like he is underwater, and my ears are ringing. I heard him, but I didn’t reply. I didn’t realize I didn’t answer him until we were on our way back home after we cleared everything up, and he said I just kept saying to myself, “Oh no, oh no, I can’t believe I just did that, oh my gosh. Dad the car is smoking, we need to get out.” I replied in my head, kind of as a self-check to make sure I wasn’t in dire need of medical attention, but me being okay was not my number one priority. I wanted to make sure he was okay, and that we got out quickly in case the car caught on fire. In the moment, I was afraid, thankful my dad and I are okay, but terrified of the condition of the car, the other car and the people in it, and the fact I just crashed my grandma’s car. My dad keeps trying to reassure me. “Em, we’re okay, it’s okay, we will figure it out.” Then, being the nurse and caring person that he is, he says, “I need to go see if the people in that car is okay.” Everyone was okay, my grandma wasn’t the slightest bit mad, and we got everything taken care of.

After both of my accidents, it changed the way that I drive. I felt scared to drive on even moderately bad roads for the rest of winter, and was nervous to drive the upcoming winter. In fact, I asked my dad to drive me places for a week when it first started snowing, but after a while it just wasn’t practical. I had to get back behind the wheel, and eventually, became a little more comfortable. To this day, I still get very nervous when the roads are bad. The crash in my grandma’s car had similar effects. I was nervous to start driving again. I overthink every decision. I’m scared that anytime I have to slow down with someone driving behind me, that they won’t see me slow down and they will rear-end me. I’m scared to drive when it snows, even if the roads aren’t bad. It almost makes me so cautious to the point where it is dangerous.

Now to talk about the most irresponsible, reckless, and distracted drivers. The drunk drivers. The drivers you wish you or none of your loved ones have to ever encounter. I am constantly terrified of leaving a friend’s house late at night and a drunk driver being on the road. So many innocent lives have been taken by drunk drivers. Both children and adults. If you’re thinking about driving drunk, just don’t.

You may ask, in your two and a half years of driving, what have you learned? Well, thankfully, I’m here to tell you. I have learned to not drive tired. As an alternative to this, ask a friend to drive you home or pick you up, stay the night where you’re at, or call a taxi service. Next, actively pay attention to the things around you, not just the road. Look for animals, especially deer. Look for kids and their toys. If you’re not looking for them, they don’t register in your brain. Another thing is to not let passengers distract you. It could be a talkative person in the front seat, or a screaming child in the back seat. You can’t avoid this all the time, but you can try. Explain to the adult or screaming kid (if they’re old enough to understand) that it could be putting you both in danger if they keep distracting you. Worse comes to worst, just pull over. So please. If the roads are sloppy, drive slower. Maybe avoid driving altogether . If you are intoxicated, call a cab, Uber, or friend. Wear your seatbelt. Don’t speed. Don’t drive tired. Don’t be impatient. Don’t be inconsiderate. You are putting your life, and others lives in danger. You never know who is in the other car.

Works Cited

“Learn the Facts About Distracted Driving.” EndDD, www.enddd.org/the-facts-about-distracted-driving/?gclid=CjwKCAiAkan9BRAqEiwAP9X6UdvtmYW3x7hUf_V209x3n98x-I9O4SPWA0B4cBWMP6l-SnPB34THAhoCX_QQAvD_BwE.