Name: julianna Hirao
From: issaquah , WA
Votes: 0
An
average of 1.25 million die from road crashes annually. Roughly 3500
people died from an accident today. 3500 people could have avoided an
early demise if only those responsible were more aware. Those
responsible not only ended the lives of 3500 people today, but ended
the lives of the victims parents, family and loved ones. Every time
an irresponsible driver gets behind the wheel he or she has the
capability to not only end the lives of his or her victims, but also
the lives of whomever the victim has touched in their shortened life.
However quantity is not the issue, the issue is that someone died at
all.
The
number of people that die is just a statistic, the death in itself is
a tragedy. And the statistics are meaningless if you are affected by
that small percent. Unfortunately a family friend was that small
percent. The Robertson’s were your standard all American family.
Jill and Daniel worked together in accounting and their twins, Jack
and Emily were 11. One night Jill picked Jack and Emily up from
robotics. As they were driving home north on the 405 a drunk driver
was going south at 110 mph. At 7:03 the speeding vehicle collided
with the lane divider, the sheer speed of the vehicle caused it to
jump the divider and collided head on with the Robertson’s car.
Jill, who was driving and Jack, because he was 2 minutes older than
Emily, were in the front seats of the car and were killed instantly.
Emily, who sat right behind her brother so she could watch her mom
drive, was knocked into a coma. Daniel was contacted by the police
and met what was left of his family at the hospital, believing that
he would soon be all that was left of the Robertsons. Three months
later Emily woke up, and her dad, rather than rejoice, had to answer
the difficult question of where mom and Jack were.
An incident like
this is tragic, and hundreds of incidents like this occur everyday.
Many blame it on miseducation, that if we inform enough drivers about
the tragedy they have the potential to cause situations like this
would be avoided. I believe that while driving education is
important, the paucity of it isn’t responsible for all these
deaths. Rather the issue is our culture’s narcissistic tendencies,
where our issues take precedence over all else. The root of
irresponsible driving is an inability to simply think of others. If
an individual was forced to always confront the possibility of
killing others they’d take more precaution in their driving. A fix
to this issue is beyond education, it calls for a shift in culture.
In my opinion the way to improve this situation is to be more aware
as you drive, to consciously make the decision to drive safely with
the incentive to keep others from harm until it becomes an
unconscious reaction.
