Please Drive Safe

Vicente
Sandoval Jr.

March
30th, 2020

Please
Drive Safe

My
early childhood was based on these four things; video games, legos,
toy soldiers, and toy cars. Me and my brother would build crazy
cities with books, dvd and cassette boxes for our legos and cars to
live in harmony then get attacked by toy soldiers. Growing up, me and
brother built amazing memories together while we babysitting us was
usually our cousin Nalleley and her high school friends. One of them
in particular was one I never really got to know when I was younger,
and that opportunity was cut short in 2010. Her name was Ana, and she
a some of the other high school friends were involved in a fatal car
crash, that took only her life. Nalleley and the rest of my family
mourned her loss, but it hard for me to as I never got to know her.
One day when Nalleley’s family and friends along with my own were
mourning her, my mom got close to me and my brother and told us,
“when you two get older, please drive safe. I need you two to do
that for me.” Since that day I’ve promised and continue to keep
my word. I got my license just this last October the day before I
turned 17, and when I was dropping my mom off at work and about to
drive on my own for the first time, my mom hugged me, gave me a
blessing and once more told me, “Please drive safe.” The
importance of driving safe is obviously for one’s own safety to be
able to get to work, to school, and especially back home safely, but
it goes far beyond that as one’s own precautions in driving,
determines the world around them. Ana’s driver was intoxicated, and
their own lack of safety, lead to the passing of someone else other
than themselves, and to the loss of someone so important to whole
families. The number of motor vehicle deaths in 2017 was 37,000+
where, according to the CDC, 2,364(that’s about 6.4%) of those were
teenagers aged 16-19. And that’s not all 300,000+ total car
accidents involving teens. This is a tragic yet very true problem the
United States and the whole world faces along with all the worlds
problems. Many teens don’t take the full proper precautions before
and while driving, and teens aren’t alone in this as all drivers
have fallen to it. It is true, it is impossible to be fully prepared
to drive as when car accidents happen, a lot are true accidental
accidents. However, it does help enormously to not only know the laws
of the road and apply them every time one drives, to make sure not
only you but anyone around you is the most safe they can be. So,
please drive safe.