Name: Taylor Paige Montgomery
From: Greencastle, IN
Votes: 0
Early
on a Monday morning in late August, I hop in the car with my dad and
we sped away, heading to school. Not long into the trip, we were
driving up a hill, when suddenly, a deer unexpectedly jumped in front
of our car. My dad swerved to miss it, and the car did a 180 and the
passenger side slammed into the hill on the right side of the road.
The damage was decently significant, with the fender dragging the
ground and the passenger side banged in from the impact.
Unfortunately, this is not the only accident my dad or I have been
in. Once, I was riding with my boyfriend when his tire blew and his
car did the same 180 and almost flipped. Another time, a car slammed
into the passenger side of my parent’s vehicle, which resulted in
my mom getting a titanium plate placed in her neck. And when I was
only 2 years old, another rider collided with my dad on their
four-wheelers. This resulted in a punctured lung and broken ribs and
wrist for my dad, and an airlift for the other rider.
If
my boyfriend had checked his tires for any issues, we wouldn’t have
almost flipped. If my dad had kept an eye out for deer, the chance of
our accident would have been reduced. If the other driver had kept
her eyes on the road and not on her phone, my mom wouldn’t have
been subjected to surgery. If everyone took just a few steps to be a
little safer, these accidents would have been avoided. Checking tires
regularly and ensuring that vehicles are in running condition can
prevent many accidents like the one my boyfriend and I were involved
in. Putting phones down and on “silent” or “Do Not Disturb”
can prevent not just accidents, but deaths. While not much can be
done about the deer population, if every driver keeps an alert eye on
the road and isn’t distracted, unnecessary accidents can be
avoided.
Personally,
it has become very important to me to practice safe driving. My phone
sits beside me in the seat of my truck, screen down to where I can’t
see it. Since I drive lifted f250 truck, I focus on keeping my speed
at safe levels and keeping other driver’s safe. If I were to get into
a serious accident, deaths would almost certainly occur, and so it is
my duty to ensure that these accidents don’t happen. Every driver
should carry this philosophy, or one similar to it. This could easily
be taught in drivers education classes, along with the steps that
people can take to be safer drivers on the road, including putting
phones away and keeping eyes on the road. If every driver took these
steps, took a drivers ed class, adopted that philosophy of it is
their job to prevent accidents, then accidents like the ones I’ve
experienced in my life can be avoided and lives can be saved.
