How a Starbucks Iced Coffee Changed My Life

I don’t think anyone realizes every morning on their way to work or school that the lives of hundreds of strangers you pass by everyday are in your hands. The human brain is unable to do multiple tasks at once, no matter who you are, and the brain is only able to do one thing at a time, and they are putting other people’s lives on the line when they decide to put their eyes off the road or hands off the steering wheel. My name is Ghaida Sharaf and I will be speaking on the dangers of distracted driving and how it affected me personally and my everyday life for the rest of my life.

One day just a few months ago, I was on my way to school in my mother’s large Toyota Sienna on the way to school at 10:54 am, I was running late because class started in 15 minutes but I was tired from studying for my Physics final the night before and was running on just 4 hours of sleep, so I decided to go to Starbucks before class for an iced coffee and was blasting music on the way there. It was the last few weeks of my senior year and I just wanted it all to be over with. Little did I know it was close to being over with and my soul was close to being taken by the Angel of Death. In just one short minute, the car’s brakes stopped working and I went over a curb and swerved into a Do Not Enter Sign, denting the sign and the entire left section of my mom’s van was peeled off to the side like an orange. That one sip I decided to take resulted in my mom’s car in the shop for 2 months and thousands of dollars being spent on it, a huge gash on my forehead and migraines for weeks after the accident and risking my life, the people in the car’s around me lives, the pedestrians’ lives, and vandalizing my small town’s sign. I didn’t sit in the driver’s seat again for months, not until my parents both sat with me in the car and made me get over my fear of driving and to this day I am unable to drive alone due to the traumatic fear.

Teenage drivers are much more of a risk than other adult drivers and most young drivers do not realize that they’re not 100% focused on the road, including myself, with 42% of teenagers admitting to texting while driving according to the CDC Motor Vehicle Safety. These distractions like texting or drinking threaten everyone in the vehicle and innocent bystander’s safety and take the drivers attention away from driving. Teens make driving more dangerous than it should be with 22% of teenagers speeding and 18% failing to yield.

Ways I used to stop these habits while driving like texting, or changing the song, or eating and drinking, was to always have someone have someone else in the car do it for me so I can have my full attention in the road and take away any possible distractions which would ever risk my life again. If there are circumstances where one is alone in the car, they can park to the right and do whatever it is they need to do if it’s that important, but it usually never is. They can also wait till they reach their destination or wait till they approach a red light or stop sign. There are laws on distracted driving but it doesn’t stop the thousands that die every year due to it so in the end it takes responsibility and selflessness in the driver to not risk not just their lives, but the drivers and passengers around them.

Whether the accident is your fault or not, it only takes a couple of seconds for something to run out on the road, or another driver swerving onto you or stopping in front of you, and in those couple of seconds, you and your entire family’s future is determined. Whether you have to live with a permanent scar to remind you of this traumatic incident for the rest of your life like me, or you become disabled, or your children have to grow up without a father or mother. Because of these potential risks, you need to have all of your attention on the road. I am proof that people can come back from accidents and I am now waiting for my new car to arrive so I can commute every day from home to campus these next 4 years. Even though it’ll take a lot of practice, time, and patience, I will get back to driving alone like before, but this time I have come out a better and more attentive driver.