The Drive to Dads

It was just a few days ago when my sister and I were getting on the highway to go and see my dad. The traffic was backed up immensely and it wasn’t until we passed it that we saw three cars had crashed. By the looks of it, no one had died and instead only had to worry about insurance covering their surely totalled vehicles. After passing the wreck, I turned to my little sister and said “so many people die in car wrecks.” This was a conversation I wish I didn’t have to have with her, but it seemed necessary even though she can’t enter the deadly game of driving for years.

The conversation began with explaining how tragic it is and her responding with “my friend’s mom died a few months ago from a wreck, my friend broke a lot of her bones.” It made me think about what if that was us, the “What if we didn’t make it to dads?” looming in my mind. After that, my hands were shaky and my attentiveness had increased drastically. Because that’s what drivers must be, attentive. While many wrecks do happen out of road rage or stupidity, a majority are simply just accidents. Accidents may not always be avoidable but they can be prevented solely by paying attention. Attentiveness is key, that’s what I told my sister.

I would be lying if I said that at some point I hadn’t been reckless too. We live in a world of technology and I was so naive and careless that I failed to recognize that a simple text message could cost me my life. Only 21% of teen drivers have fatal accidents because of texting and driving so it’s unlikely that it will happen to me right? Wrong. It’s wrong because that percent should be zero. I’ll admit that relaying this message to a teenage mind is difficult, but we have to try. My mother too is guilty of this and everytime we’re in the car I try to tell her to think but we are so technologically minded that it’s hard. While it is not a problem that can be fixed overnight, we as a society can take steps to recognize this growing issue. Because at the end of the day, it’s not just our lives that are at risk. 

The car ride was too short for me to teach my sister what should be taught in classes if it’s not already common sense. Personally, I now make sure to avoid all the “close calls”. Steps like educating younger siblings is only the beginning to assure the next generation of drivers is smarter and safer. Sharing the tragic stories of those who have experienced this will allow us to connect. Without sharing our knowledge and stories, the roads will only become more reckless. My sister and I could have been in that wreck and while we may have made it to dads that night, we still had to drive home.