Driver Safety Doctrine

I grudgingly walk out of the musky locker room into the brisk hallway air. I say my last farewells while walking down the hall to the exit. When I leave the indoor facility I scan the parking lot but to no avail, she’s not there. I sighed and reached for my phone, welp a guy can dream, I thought to myself as I dialed her number.

“Hey, mom I just got done with practice” I say in a way to not sound as little exhausted as possible.

“Ok I’m right down the street give me like 10 minutes” I can hear the sounds of cars on the phone so I assume she is telling the truth this time.

“Oh, okay see you when you get here… I love you… Bye”. She came every day for months. The routine was nothing.

I wake up my mom takes me to school at 5 in the morning for weightlifting. Go through school, stay after for football, and call at 6 when I’m done. The routine was nothing. Sometimes she’s around the corner, and sometimes she’s still at home but she always gets there. Come to find out later, as soon as she got off the phone she landed in an accident. A car did an emergency brake right in front of her. She had no time to respond she was in midst of hanging up, so there I still waiting an hour after practice had ended for my mom who was supposedly less than 10 minutes away…

This left an immense impact on me, seeing what the effects of irresponsible driving could do. I thought to myself what a I could do in order to reduce the number of accidents by drivers & what steps will I take to reduce the number of problems related to driving. From then on I stood by my own self-made doctrine that I believe would be useful in sharing to make sure something like that never happens again to anyone else.

From what I knew of the accident, my mom got into it after my call even though she had a hands-free call function in her car. This leads me to believe having any form of multitasking while handling a vehicle can land in fatal accidents. So from that day on, I swore that if I needed to call I did so before the driver was on the road and or communicate the information beforehand so no call was necessary. If I told my mom when the practice was let out or waited longer the accident would have never happened. Furthermore, this helps since the times when it’s the most crowded are times when tons of people or in my case parents are coming to pick up their kids. If I’d communicated earlier there’d be no need to rush or show up late. Knowing when to show up means you can show up early on less crowded roads. while in itself this means safer driving because of fewer cars this is also safer since you’re less likely to speed knowing there is no rush to get there. But even that won’t eliminate all the risks.

That is why I decided to not call anyone for that matter when I think they are on the road unless I believe it’s an emergency. To me, I think of the car commercials where they show the last message a person gets before they get into a car accident. I resonated with that symbolism and the commparison made in it, the weight they put on the last thing a person says and the why for the car accident. I knew my mom was coming. The routine was nothing. I just felt jaded so I called but what if I didn’t? That accident wasn’t more important than my impatience and curiosity. By not distracting drivers they can be more alert on the road. So even if all drivers aren’t off their phones having one more means one more alert & safe driver that prevents an accident. To me, this means by waiting and just knowing that I communicated enough beforehand all I have to do is bide my time till my ride comes and I’m helping keep roads safer. I also encouraged this to some of my friends, instead of immediately calling their parents I asked what time they usually come and instead told them to wait till then before calling for assurance. As a person not immediately on the road, it can be hard to think we don’t have an impact but we do. I follow that doctrine in all situations and I feel it helps keep the ones I care about safe.

This may seem too small to warrant a doctrine but they became the keys to my beliefs on driver safety. Ideally, that accident was preventable, the routine was nothing. Driver safety isn’t solely on the driver but on everyone around them as well. Even Simply insurance, an automobile insurance company that is well-versed in all fields around motor vehicles, stated “2,841 people were killed in car crashes linked to distracted driving in 2018 alone”. This alone should lead you to question why are they distracted, whether it was really worth it, is there anything that could be done. I believe that it’s the responsibility of anyone who can distract a driver to acknowledge the damage they can do even though they themselves are off the road. Sending a message before they get behind the wheel versus while on the highway can be the difference between making it home versus a hospital. Choosing to not message when you know that it could potentially kill the receiver makes all the difference. After you communicate the information, not contacting them while in transit makes everyone’s life so much better. From the car in front of the driver who doesn’t get rear-ended to the cars behind and around who don’t get traffic or a secondhand accident from the first one. Ultimately my doctrine follows the simple rules of communication before then be patient. If only I knew this before my mom wouldn’t…

Editors note reading back this essay and it appeared that by not finishing my intro I make it sound like my mom died or faced some horrible ambiguous consequences. While it’s true I waited for an hour she was truly 10 minutes down the street, and when she arrived the front of the car was totaled. It took months before she was fully reimbursed for the accident. From then on I was more precautious. I started practicing my own self-made doctrine until it was like the routine, nothing.