Safe Driving Essay

Sometimes there is no Second Chance

“Hey Cooper, did you hear about the car crash? It was on Kiefer Creek so I’m sure we know someone involved.” These were the words of my mother on the morning of around 8:00 A.M. on November 14, 2021 – the words that would change my life forever.

The night of Saturday, November 13, I went to a soccer game with friends and after the game we were all talking about friends and family we had lost to covid and one of our close friends to suicide. I woke up the next morning for church, heard about the crash, and immediately began to worry about my brother and his friends, the kids who have been at our house every weekend for years on end. Since we knew Cole Anello, my brother’s best friend, drove a Nissan Ultima and the News were reporting a Maxima, we thought we were in the clear. That was until we picked up my brother and he said that Cole, Jake, and Andrew never returned to the place they were sleeping that night and they were just realizing the devastating truth.

The news confirmed our biggest fears; our friends had been in a fatal crash that killed 3 and left 2 critically injured. Cole Anello, Jake Keifer, and Rhegan Sajben were all dead, leaving Sammie Esparza and Andrew Vendt with serious injuries. After learning about the death of our close friends Cole and Jake, we balled and mourned as a family, the first time we had ever done this and it left us desiring answers to why and how this occurred.

I have always considered myself to be a good driver and a safe driver. However, there are stories such as these that have changed my life and I think driver safety is something that is universally taught, but not always perceived by those on the learning end of it. Driving is something that is fatal, but people never understand just how tragic it can be sometimes until the people that they love have had their lives end due to safe or irresponsible driving. Driving itself is a good thing that has blessed and provided opportunities to so many people, but people turn irresponsible and therefore driving becomes clouded; a bad thing. Although I have never been in a fatal car crash, I have seen how driving can tear communities apart, just how it tore my community apart. Cole had only been 16 for 1 month and I truly feel that young drivers need more experience and need to understand that every single decision you make behind the wheel of a car matters – my family and friends have now learned this the hard way.

IF we begin doing our own part, and then get those we know to do the same, there will undoubtedly be safer driving. Step by step we could make a change Although there will be a few people who do not listen because they are oblivious to the real dangers that are present with driving immaturely, a start somewhere is completely necessary to avoid people dying just like my friends did. Cole specifically is someone that has always been in my life, someone I thought would be with me until the end of time. A tree on the side of Kiefer Creek Road took him away, and I do not want anyone else to ever have the same questions that I want to ask Cole, questions that I will never receive an answer to. I have been blessed to have a conscience that tells me to drive safe and not go over the speed limit because I have seen the outcomes when people do not abide by these laws, death. Death is obviously an extremity, but absolutely appropriate when discussing the idea of safer driving because there are so many people every day that have their lives cut short. Driving is something that is a blessing and a curse, it leads to freedom and opportunity, but safety MUST be placed first for drivers as each decision someone makes affects the lives of so many. We will miss our friends everyday for the rest of our lives, and out of respect, we are all trying to work hard to do the right thing, and to pay special attention to driving safely so that we always make it home.