The importance of driving safely

Given just how much most people on Earth rely on cars and how often cars are used one would think that people would be so much more careful than they are. After cars are more or less big metal death machines that are speeding down the street. There are an endless number of ways that cars could hurt or even kill someone. That being said, people are so careless, it is also like drivers think that nothing can hurt them. However they can be hurt, and they can hurt other people as well. There are so many stories about people dying or at least hurt from a car crash. I will share some stories that I or a loved one personally experienced, thankfully by pure luck no one was seriously hurt.

The first personal story that I will share is my own. When I was about Sixteen years old I had a job at Pick N Save that I hated. The highlight of my shift was the end of it. My parents made sure that I drove there on my own so that I would have as much driving experience as possible. Little did anyone know that those two factors would result in a car accident. It was a normal shift that day, but I was wiped out. I wanted to get home and relax as soon as I possibly could, which meant that I was not paying all that much attention to the road. The result was that I ran over a ledge and one of the tires of the car popped. I parked as soon as I could and called my parents. I will admit that I was freaking out. I was so sure that my parents were going to kill me, and of course a police officer showed up while I was crying. Apparently I was parked at a no parking zone. I explained what had happened and we waited for my parents. Thankfully everything was sorted and I did not get hurt. That being said, you can be sure that I am now very careful as well as watchful when I am on the road.

It is interesting that I got into an accident somewhere that I had driven around at least a hundred times. That just goes to show that you should always pay attention to where you are driving. If you get distracted for even just a second you have a very high chance of getting into a car accident. I can imagine that no one wants that. Now while that car accident made me hate to drive even more than I already did I still had to drive. Thankfully I (knock on wood) have to this day have driven without any car accidents. Unfortunately the same thing can not be said for my sister.

The little sister; Jessica or Jessie hates driving almost as much as I do, possibly even more as she has to drive downtown, which almost always has a lot of cars. One day when Jessica was driving downtown for a reason that I can not remember she had a car accident. Thankfully it was also a minor car accident and no one was hurt. When she was backing out she accidentally hit one of the mirrors of the car against another car. As I stated above there are almost always a lot of cars downtown, there certainly were quite a lot of cars downtown on that day. My sister had a freak out just like I did and I believe that she called our parents just like I did. The car accidents were actually quite similar looking back, or at least our reactions to the car accidents. We were both freaking out over minor accidents, which makes me want to add that when there is any sort of car accident, stay calm. Letting a panicked brain take over is never a good idea no matter how bad things seem. Keep calm and think about what the situation is. Which is something that both my sister and I should have done.

This car accident just goes to show that every driver needs to be aware of other drivers as well as any other obstacles that are on the road. If anything, other drivers are the biggest obstacles on the road that everyone should keep an eye out for. Other drivers are very rarely going to move their cars for you. Most drivers are way too focused on themselves to pay attention to other drivers so you are going to need to do that for them. Also when backing up your car in general but especially when there are a lot of other cars go slow and take your time. There is rarely a need to hurry, and there is never a need to hurry that is more important than the life and health of you, as well as others around you. Now if only there were more people who understood that when driving. People need to learn that they are not the only ones on the road.