Every Life Matters

After my mother hung up the phone, she looked at me with a stern expression and said, “your uncle is spending the night in jail, he was arrested for drunk driving.” I was confused and resentful, how could someone who was like a brother to me commit such a reckless act? How could he have sat behind the wheel in his drunken state, a state that could’ve taken the life of another person? Despite the shocking news, I quickly realized how blessed we all were that day: no one had died.

However, not everyone involved in a car accident is as fortunate. After a life full of charity work and devoting herself to her sons, the people’s beloved Princess Diana had her life taken in a car crash. And unfortunately, she is not the only one whose life has been taken while on the road. According to the Annual United States Road Crash Statistics, the annual number of car crash deaths is estimated to be over 46,000.

Ever since I learned about the terrifying statistics of fatal car crashes and the danger of drunk drivers, I have been anxious to learn how to drive. My mother would always remind me that driving is an ordinary and necessary daily activity, however, I viewed it as an activity that might kill me at any given moment. I also developed a habit of calling my mother daily while she was on her commute from work to make sure she was still alive and well. Anytime she would be running late on her commute back home, I would instantly imagine that the worst had happened to her and that she would be lying on a road with no pulse. I know that these thoughts were ridiculous, but my terrified mind couldn’t help but to synthesize them. So when I first got behind the wheel, I pleaded with my mother to not make me drive. I told her “I don’t want to die,” and she replied with an eye roll, “you won’t die as long as you follow the rules of the road.”

My mother’s words struck a chord in me and made me realize that I can control my safety while on the road: all I’d need to do is to take the lessons learned during my driver education course to heart. During driver education courses, people are taught the necessary skills and steps to follow in order to drive safely on the road. Some important lessons that are learned are to always wear a seatbelt, to minimize distractions such as cell phones in order to remove the temptation of texting while driving, to not engage in emotional conversations so that the driver can keep a clear head, to check for possible hazards, and last but not least, to drive sober.

Drunk driving alone is responsible for 30 deaths daily in the United States, marking driving under the influence the main contributor to fatal car accidents. While driving under the influence, the driver’s vision is impaired, they are less focused, they have a lack of coordination, and they have inadequate judgment while on the road, which is important because having proper judgment is necessary in order to make safe driving decisions quickly. With all of this being said, it is practically impossible to safely drive while under the influence. So, the bottom line is this: don’t drink and drive so that you don’t risk losing your life and the lives of others.

By applying the above lessons and rules to every time I drive, I can ensure my safety while I’m on the road. I can do this by making sure that I’m attentive to the road and not distracted by my phone by putting it in a spot that’s hard to reach. Another thing I can do to be a safe driver is to wear a seatbelt at all times and to maintain my vehicle so that it doesn’t become a hazard itself. In addition, I can help others become safer on the road by being a reliable designated driver to any of my friends who decide to drink, so that they don’t make the same mistake that my uncle did and risk endangering their life and the lives of others.

In the end, every human life is valuable and we must do everything in our power to protect those lives. In order to do this, we must ensure that we are driving safely so that no one’s bright future is taken away from them in a car crash.