Name: Gavin Shea Webb
From: Sullivan, Missouri
Votes: 0
Gavin Webb
Personal
Narrative of Driving and with the Discussions of
Back
when the wind could turn the leaves into the most abrasive surprise
at your doormat that mom had ever seen; it could only have been taken
as a sign of pure anticipation for my driver’s test that fall. I
had struggled with the permit test the year before, of course I was
nervous! Alas, I was awarded at my assessment with a score of 78: not
bad!
The
next morning was a rush, getting to drive my father’s 97’ Sierra
to school on my own; I was living the teenage dream.
The
most exciting thing was the sense of control I now had over my own
fate. Prior to me earning my license, I had to ask for rides from all
the older kids who would try to drive faster than anyone really knew
how to, and come to find out: this was surprisingly normal, and it
was a common schoolday practice amongst kids at our school.
What
else is new? I felt as though I was superior, void of mistakes; I
checked all my mirrors when I needed to, always put on my blinker,
what could happen?
It
would take one afternoon to change my life however, I would rear end
a woman picking her son from school. I had gotten lazy at
participating with the game of attention, thus leading to the failure
of brake application, leading to a dent in the bumper of her Ford
Focus. Luckily everyone was okay, I unfortunately was stuck with the
mental fee of potentially putting someone in supreme danger, and the
literal fee of car insurance.
I
had now put all my attention into keeping my eyes on the road, there
shall never be any failure on my part to be attentive on the road, it
had unfortunately come at a price higher than I could of stomached
affording. There had been several kids who had found themselves in
more intensive accidents than I, it was almost commonplace amongst
the school population. It would only be as common until an asset to
my school’s marching band; a friend of mine and the program which I
had served as well, had a hole torn through the blanket of security
everyone held on to so well.
He
was driving home one Sunday evening and had crossed the centerline on
a road so curly it would make your head spin. Mine, and many others’
friend was killed on impact of the accident, luckily the other driver
had only suffered a broken leg that mended within a few months.
The
hole it had punctured in the band and community was a very tough one
to mend.
Not
only did this impact the band but also the community, it taught a
lesson of mortality through an unfortunate teacher; this however,
wasn’t the biggest heartbreaker. It was unfortunately my friend’s
fault, he was reported to be distracted at the time of the accident.
The
shocking reality of cell phone use while driving had rippled through
the community, but just as in a pond; the ripples will fade
eventually.
I
still have friends who text and drive on a regular basis, along with
other misconceptions about how serious the speed limit signs prove to
be.
There
needs to be a standard of safe driving in our society, things like
cup holder mounts that allow for even easier use of a cell phone does
nothing to eliminate or even minimize texting-and-driving culture.
Kids
need to be told about the reality of things, just how fragile life
is; however, many aren’t able to realize this until they have lived
it.
It
has come to my attention that we are as dangerous as we are ignorant.
I had no idea about the statistics of dangerous driving until I
looked at the fact sheet on DmvEdu’s website, we should all know
about the dangers of driving, no matter how good we think we are.
Sometimes
it’s easy to get caught up in life itself, so easy that we forget
how to save it in the first place. Every community has a tragedy such
as this, it’s all too common. When are we going to get sick of it?
