Name: Gabriel Cole Leary
From: Nashville, Tennessee
Votes: 0
In
the split second where I made eye contact with his young daughter
crying in the backseat of their car while the alcohol escaped heavily
on his breath, I had a sudden realization. He was driving his own
child while drunk, and he had come a millisecond second from ending
my life.
It
was the same left turn I’ve taken hundreds of times. I waited for a
few seconds after the arrow turned to green, and began my turn. Then
suddenly, out of nowhere, I was t-boned by a driver who had run the
red by nearly three seconds. After both cars stopped spinning, I got
my bearings and was fortunate to discover I was relatively unharmed,
only dazed. As the man driving the other car got out of his mangled
door, there was something off about him. It took awhile for me to
realize this, as the adrenaline coursing through my veins had my
entire body shaking.
Expecting
the man to come forward and apologize for his mistake, instead he
towered over me and began verbally abusing me. How could he think
this was my fault? But it was in his rant of “the light going from
red to yellow then back to green” yelling in my face that exposed
his inebriation.
This
experience, occurring only months after I gained my driver’s
license, has deeply stuck with me. Seeing a grown man handcuffed and
driven away while a police officer took his daughter in a separate
car enlightened me to the very real dangers of driving. That day, my
father said something that I’ll always remember, “Driving is the
most dangerous thing you’ll ever do, and you do it every day.”
Since,
I’ve adopted strategies that help to keep my driving the safest it
can possibly be. Beginning with my phone, I toss it in the trunk on
silent when I enter my car as to have absolutely no distractions.
This allows my focus to be completely on the operation of the
vehicle, and not on whatever my friends are up to. Second, I drive as
if my mother was in the shotgun seat. I know this sounds somewhat
silly, but this practice has had a real impact on keeping me safer
behind the wheel. Lastly, whenever I’m a passenger in another’s
car, I’ll make sure the music is within a reasonable volume, and
the driver is never inebriated or distracted.
The
riveting experience of being hit by a drunk driver has formed me into
the cautious driver that I am today. I hope it doesn’t take an
accident for others to realize the very real possible implications of
driving, like it did for me. I believe that by truly highlighting the
importance of safe driving – and dangers of unsafe driving –
practices in the permit phase of the license process, we will be able
to build a safer driving community.
