You Do Not Have To Be Drunk To Crash A Car

You
Do Not Have To Be Drunk To Crash A Car

My
friends and I never call each other. I think I have a phobia of phone
calls, so when my best friend called me one morning without warning,
I knew something was wrong. I could feel it in my gut. She couldn’t
explain to me in complete sentences what had happened, but I got the
gist of it. Our close friend had been in a car accident after prom.

My
immediate reaction was this had to be a joke. Did people actually get
in car accidents after prom like in the movies? The heaviness in my
chest confirmed what she said though. He had been in an accident.

I
felt like I couldn’t breathe. This boy wasn’t just one of our
close friends. He’s the first boy I’ve ever liked and now his
ribs were broken.

My
friend didn’t drink and drive like many would assume. He was just
in the wrong place at the wrong time. The weather was unfavoring and
he drove anyway. It was raining heavy and he rolled through a stop
sign. A car t-boned his driver’s door. The police said if the
colliding car would have hit at any other point, he would have been
dead on impact.

My
friend almost died because he drove when he shouldn’t have. We
aren’t educated in school about safe driving as much as we should
be. Our education does not extend past a drunk driving simulation.
Other forms of driving accidents exist. You do not have to be drunk
to crash your car.

We
can reduce the number of deaths claimed by car accidents by educating
students better in school. We need to learn when it’s safe to drive
and when it’s not. Just because you’re not intoxicated, doesn’t
mean you should be driving. Other hazards exist like the weather in
my friend’s case.

I
practice safe driving by riding the bus to school when the weather is
unsavory. Some kids think I’m wimpy for not driving in the snow,
but I think it’s better to be safe than sorry. I hope to lead by
example and show my peers that you don’t have to drive all the time
to be cool.

Safety
should be top priority and accidents like my friend’s need to be
talked about in schools. Drunk driving isn’t the only type of
accident that occurs involving teenagers. Sometimes it’s the
weather and sometimes it’s sober, reckless behavior.

Accidents
can be prevented through education just like most of the world’s
prevalent problems. Educate the youth and change the future for the
better.