A Reckless Driver’s Story

Raylauni Jones

7/25/2020

A Reckless Driver’s Story

It was a warm fourth of July night, and I was out with a bunch of new friends. We all met up at an event, and before the event we decided to drink and catch up with one another. One drink led to another drink, which later led to another, next thing you know we were a few drinks in and pretty belligerent. Towards the end of the night it was time for everyone to leave. One thing you should know about me is, when I am ready to go, I am ready to go. So I decided to take my keys back from a “friend”. I told her I was ok to drive. Once I was in my car, I noticed that I was not ok to drive. I pulled my car over into a small driveway, and I sat there for a little bit just to let the alcohol wear off. By the time I was sitting and processing the fact that I should not be behind the wheel, pulling over was ultimately the best decision for me until I saw a cop car drive right past me. As soon as the cops spotted my old 1986 BMW parked in front of a corporate residence they immediately made a U-turn. It was pretty upset considering I was already pulled over. I ended up getting arrested from refusing to take the sobriety test. That night was my first night ever getting in trouble with the law and it kind of shocked me how the system follows its own set of rules. From that ordeal I was ordered to take classes, make payments, and was told I could not drive for a year.

One of the classes I was ordered to take was a Hospital and Morgue class. Both classes are separate from one another. The hospital course was more about our reflections in life and how we make decisions based off of our day to day. It opened my eyes to the physiological damage that can be done from drinking. The morgue was a class that I was required to take, and let me tell you it was definitely the hardest. At the morgue we were first given a brief intro about the duties of the employees along with the system of how the morgue itself works. Basically, after someone dies the coroner goes out to pick up the body no matter how dismembered or disembodied. Once the body is picked up, it is delivered back to the morgue which is where it will be weighed, pictuered, and toe tag, from there the bodies are then placed on a shelf by weight and wait to be claimed by a family member. After we were given a brief synopsis, and then taken down to where all of the activities occur. Seeing multiple bodies stacked up in a warehouse was extremely life changing. People of all shapes and sizes, races, ages, it did not matter death doesn’t discriminate. It was an eye opener to tell you the least. It’s pretty common to hear someone say “here one day and gone the next”, but experiencing the morgue is put into context.

Overall, I learned a lot. Life is precious and being able to live life is a luxury. From my experience it took me getting arrested to put drinking and driving into perspective. It’s always a good idea to speak out when witnessing someone driving irresponsibly. Even though speaking out helps sometimes people are not able to fully understand the severity of safe driving. I believe it takes many people taking these classes to the morgue or the hospital to really understand. Ok, maybe not so severe but there should be mandated classes that are in place in order for you to even obtain a license and when it’s time to get your license renewed. I believe that once the MADD program was set in place there was a significant drop in the number of incidents but it should not stop there. Keeping people aware and updated with classes is an important way to keep the death toll down and insure safety within communities.