Calm Down!

Calm
Down!

By:
Bianca Roman

After
a night of watching my parents drown in liquor at a party and 20
minutes of “sobering up” it was finally time to go home. I hated
getting in the car because I never knew if I would get out alive.
Alcohol simply clouded my father’s better judgement. Every time I
asked him not to drive to wait a bit longer he said he “was good”.
That night was no different he claimed he was capable of driving our
family home safely. The music that had been playing was so loud I
could barely hear myself think. My little sister and baby brother had
fear in their eyes, as they held onto each other, and I held them. My
mom was not worried, she was too busy singing at the top of her lungs
to the music and reeked of alcohol. As he merged onto the freeway it
was evident that my father was willing to be reckless, even though
his children and wife were in the car. A car on our left side wanted
to show off, and my dad just couldn’t let it go. He tried racing
the car to get ahead. As he was swerving my sister cried out for him
to stop. He screamed that he knew what he was doing and told us to
calm down. I as the oldest still could never stand up to him. The
worst part is they never remembered or at least never acknowledged
there wrong doing. This was not the first time and it definitely
wasn’t the last.

Regardless
of how reckless my father was prior to him being sober I’m lucky
that my family didn’t experience anything harder than this. I offer
my personal story because I know that many situations in the future
could be avoided if future drivers receive the right type of drivers
education. This is to achieve the goal of reducing the number of
deaths in result of driving. All those wanting to take on the
responsibility of becoming a driver should be willing to take part in
a program thats primary purpose is to teach safety on the road. There
are different ways that can help the reduction of those dying in car
accidents. Some think drivers ed is only meant to teach a
driver how to operate a car however if drivers ed companies
should take it upon themselves to revamp there image. It should no
longer only be seen as a minor detail to getting your license but a
huge part where your safety and others safety is priority.

Steps
that I should take to become a better and safer driver as well as
help others to become safer on the road is to look to different
resources where I am meant to learn how to use my car efficently.
This includeds websites that create scenarios for me to know what I
could do in future situations. I should know that people my age are
to scared to ask and as we get older it gets to a point were we are
no longer scared but stubborn.