A Ruined Day

A Ruined Day

It was my first day at my new college and I was so excited! I had a
list of supplies that I needed for my art class and my interior
design classes. My mom was excited for me to and offered to go with
me to the Art Store to buy my supplies for me. I wanted to drive,
since my grandma had just given me a new car! It had actually been a
while since I had driven. I spent a semester in the Disney College
Program, and I rode buses while I was out of state. So, driving
again and being in college made me feel independent and progressing
in life! We had fun picking out all of the tools and paper that I
needed and we loaded them into the big trunk. Little did I know what
was about to happen!

Pulling out of
the shopping center during five o’clock traffic did not look
promising. Traffic was backed up quite far and we had to depend on
someone to offer to let us in. The light for the intersection turned
green and cars started to move. Someone waved to us that they were
going to let us enter the long line. There was a right turn only
lane for the intersection that we had to cross to enter traffic.
Before I knew it, a white car was slamming into my driver’s side
door. A scream was coming from deep inside me. My car was moving
the wrong direction and had turned all the way around. We were up in
the grass around the store. My happy day was shattered. My new car
was totaled. And my mother had to deal with tow truck drivers,
impound lots and insurance companies by herself. This was the first
incident of this stress magnitude since my dad died. She was alone
in dealing with it all. I was little help, as someone who had only
been driving for a year.

Most accidents
have at least two parties to blame. Did I look closely enough to
make sure that my path was clear? Probably not. Was the other
driver travelling at a safe speed without distractions? Probably
not. How can such accidents be prevented? If everyone takes
responsibility to make sure that they are driving at safe speeds,
avoiding distractions and making informed decisions, there would be
few accidents. Making informed decisions, however, comes with
experience. The more experience a driver has, the better judgement
they have. Drivers ed is one of the best ways to gain the
necessary experience.

I attended
drivers ed. Mostly because I was scared to drive. I
didn’t even get my driver’s license until I was 18. I realized
before how important it was to learn all that I could. And I still
bare some of the blame for the accident. My hope is that everyone
who gets behind the wheel of a car remembers all that they learned in
their drivers ed classes.