Le Compre La Muerte A Mi Hijo

Thinking about accidents reminds me of a song by Beto Quintanilla that my parents used to play called “Le Compre La Muerte A Mi Hijo” which translates to “I bought death for my son”. It begins by telling the tale of his father giving his son a Camaro. The car had mods, new paint, and was the talk of the town. His father had bought him the wings so that his child could take flight and leave the nest. He wanted him to fly when he didn’t yet have his feathers. One Sunday morning, everything was fine until he received a call telling him that his son was no longer alive. It was then that he realized that he had bought him his death. He realized that God never sent him wings and he had tried giving him them too early. Instead of giving him everything, he should have prepared him. He wanted to give him wings to see him fly but instead had to bury his son.

Have you ever heard the screams of a mother calling out for their child who just passed away? The pain in a father’s heart after having bought his child’s casket? The empty room that a sibling sits in reminiscing about who used to be there? The child’s pain ends quickly but it never ends for their loved ones. They’re only left with thoughts about how things could have been different or how they could have protected them.

As a teenager, a driver’s license was one of the most sought-after things in my youth. To me, it meant freedom and the possibility to do anything. I wanted to get behind the wheel as quickly as possible to take off on the road. It was naive but that’s what everyone else wanted too. No matter how much every adult drilled into my head the dangers of driving, I would brush it off by acknowledging it and promising I would drive safely. It became annoying sometimes hearing the word “safety” so much. I seemed to believe I was invincible and nothing like that could ever happen to me.

I don’t know what my life would have been like if I didn’t get into that car crash. It was nothing severe with no fatalities or injuries. It was just a small fender bender. However, it was caused because I was distracted. Too busy looking the other way. Too unfocused from the road to realize that I had let go of the brake pedal. I think about this moment a lot because every time I had driven before this, I was unfocused and distracted. Had I not gotten in this accident, it could have become ten times worse. It became a wake-up call for me. Next time it could have been not noticing the car in front of me and injuring the other driver. Next time it could have been running a red light and killing a family of four. Next time it could be someone else killing my whole family in an accident. Accidents don’t happen until they do. They don’t seem real until they happen to you.

Every day, 3,700 people die due to a car crash. It’s such a small number that it only represents 0.00005 percent of the population. It’s such a small percentage that it couldn’t possibly happen to you. Right? The chances of you winning the lottery are 1 in 302 million but so many people continue to buy lottery tickets believing they could be the one. The chances of you dying in a 1 in 11 million chance but yet so many people fear getting on a plane. The chances of you existing are 1 in 10 to the power of 2,685,000 which is nearly zero but you are still here. All of these chances are smaller than dying in a car crash every day but yet we believe it may happen to us. The law of large numbers states that over time an outcome that has a tiny chance of occurring becomes more certain if given more opportunities. Every time you drive, you make the chance of dying even closer to being certain. The law of probability lever says that if the circumstances are changed slightly, the probabilities can be changed dramatically. If you become unfocused and distracted on the road, your chances of getting into a car crash skyrocket. You could one day become part of the 0,00005 percent that dies in a car crash.

Stopping the countless deaths that happen on the road starts even before you start driving for the first time. It starts from when you first start learning about being a safe driver. A driver has to know all the rules of the road, how to react in different conditions, and most importantly, knowing how to stay safe. Oftentimes, we brush off what is said during the classes as it starts to become repetitive and boring. However, these constant reminders are what makes it stick and it is important to drill it into a new driver’s head before they get behind the wheel. Telling them stories and depicting real-life situations will help them understand the gravity of being able to drive. It can never be said enough because the day you stop giving reminders, is the day that a driver gets cocky and gets into an accident. We all have to do our part to ensure that the next time someone drives, we remind them to stay focused on the road and stay safe. We may not be able to prevent all accidents but it’s all about keeping drivers educated.

The next time you go out on the road you have to remember to think about the lives of everyone on the road around you. They have lives just like yours. People to come back to. Put your phone down. Put on your seatbelt. Don’t drive when you’re drunk or tired. Stick to the speed limit. Keep a safe distance. And most importantly, stay focused on the road. I know I will. I’ll be putting away my phone, lowering the volume of my music, and removing any other distractions I may have. I will forever keep Beto Quintanilla’s song in mind when I drive. My father will hopefully never be able to relate to his song about buying his child his death. Whether it’s for my father, my mother, or my brother, I want to be able to come back home to them. I will be the safest driver possible for them and every person on the road who has their own people to get back home to.