Once in a Lifetime Phenomenon

Drivers ed Initiative Award Scholarship

Safe driving is incredibly important to me, it always has been. Currently, being a safe driver is my job; I work at Old Town Trolley Tours of Savannah, Georgia. My job is driving guests around our beautiful city and telling them the history while driving a trolley. At any point and time, I can hold up to 40 people on a bus, so being a safe driver and having safe drivers around me is important. This point was brought home to me when I was involved in an accident while driving my trolley.

In November 2019, I was working and giving a tour. It was towards the end of the day, and I was taking guests back to their cars. I was driving down Martin Luther King Jr Blvd when out of nowhere I felt something go wrong with the trolley. I could feel something in the steering wheel but no warning lights came on to signal a mechanical problem. I was a little confused because I knew something was but I didn’t know what it was. So, I put my blinker on and I started pulling over to see what happened when someone at the back of the trolley yelled, “Oh my god! He just hit you!”

I immediately began following my company’s protocol for handling traffic accidents. I had to ensure the safety of my passengers by moving to a safe location and assessing the situation. But, to my amazement, the car rear-ended my trolley again. This was highly unusual to get rear-ended twice, but I had to follow our company procedure. I set my brake and activated my hazard lights, I called my dispatcher, I ask everyone on the trolley if they are ok, and I reached for my binder to get out the forms I needed. A witness to the accident came to the trolley and said, “You need to call an ambulance! I think he’s dead!”

I verified the safety of my passengers one more time then exited the trolley to check on the other driver. He was lying limp over the passenger seat. His foot was still on the gas hitting the trolley. I grabbed a wooden yard stick out of my trolley and I broke his window to get to him. By that time the police arrived and I could go back to my passengers. I was a little shaken up but kept a cool face for my guests. When the other driver was taken away, one of the officers told me he had overdosed. I was horrified thinking anyone could do such a thing in a high pedestrian area.

After this experience, I took the safety of my guests and others more seriously. I drive much more defensively now and have no tolerance for distracted driving. This has really shaped me into becoming a better driver.