Caution While Driving

               When I was practicing for my written driver’s education test, I feel that there weren’t as many questions about safety as I expected. Yes, there were questions about which way to turn in certain scenarios to prevent accidents, pedestrians right of way, what some signs mean, etc., but there weren’t many about being safe in the car. I didn’t have one question about the usage of a seatbelt or the damages of speeding, including in harsh weather conditions, and I believe there absolutely should have been even though it should be common sense to most. The main point of this essay will come down to the importance of wearing a seatbelt, speeding, driving under the influence, and distracted driving. 

 

               When getting ready to drive, whether you just started last week, or you’ve been driving for twenty years, always put your seatbelt on, make sure your seat is in a comfortable position for you to drive in, and check your mirrors to be sure you can see clearly before pulling off. During your drive, be sure to not have any distractions that could cause you to focus your attention on anything else other than the road and your surroundings. It only takes a simple glance at your phone to lose all focus and always have the possibility of causing injuries to yourself and others. 

 

               Throughout my life, both of my parents and myself have been involved in car accidents; thankfully, none of which were fatal, but easily could have been. Each time was equally as scary as the last, especially considering we were all by ourselves when we were in these accidents. My mom was in an accident when I was still young – she was on a road very close to our home when she called my dad to tell him her car broke down on the side of the road. She pulled over onto a patch of grass and had thought she was in a safe spot to wait for my dad to get to her. A few minutes into the phone call, I heard him begin to panic, and he doesn’t panic very easily. He had called his friends and left to get to my mom when he realized she was in an accident due to background noise he heard on the phone call. Later that night, he came back and told my me and my younger brothers that our mom was hit by a drunk driver. Her car was totaled, and she was in the hospital. She wasn’t severely injured, just a bit banged up. 

 

               My father’s accident occurred due to phone usage while driving for just a moment, and reckless driving of the other driver. He was run off the road by a woman who was going well over the intended speed limit, causing him to run into a traffic sign. He was on the phone with my mom when this happened, so maybe he would’ve had better awareness of this woman approaching at such a careless speed if he weren’t on the phone with my mother. He wasn’t injured at much at all thankfully, but even small accidents like these are very scary. 

 

               The accidents I’ve been in myself were on the more intense end of the things. I started a new job in the beginning of 2022 which required employees to drive with a valid license. On just my third day of this job, two of my coworkers were taking me on a tour of the property in one of our company vehicles. We stopped at one of the buildings, and the manager of that building asked us to take her trash for her (we were housekeepers). So, we did, and on our way back down to our building (less than a football field away from this building), my coworker sitting in the passenger seat told the driver there was a spider in the van. The driver started to focus on the spider and began to panic. As quickly as you could snap your fingers, is how quickly we ran off the side of the road. There were no guard rails here. Just the road, no shoulder, and an immediate decline through mountains. Fortunately, on the way down, the wheels of the van got caught in some tree roots, which saved our lives. About 20-30 feet down from where the van stopped, was the edge of a cliff that had a very large decent to the ground. I was in the back of a ford transit, which only has two front seats and a trunk. What I’m getting at, is that when we were descending down the hill, i got thrown around like a ball in a pinball machine. That wouldn’t have happened if I had a seatbelt. 

 

              The other accident I was in most definitely scarred me for life. It was wintertime, and I had spent the night at my friend’s house, and we had work the following day. The next morning, we thought we’d go to the mall before we went to work, but we didn’t have much time, so we had to hurry. So, we quickly got ready for work, hopped in the cars, and both pulled off immediately. About five minutes into the drive, I remembered I didn’t put my seatbelt on. At the time, I was going down a hill that had lots of snow and high speeds by other drivers. So, I thought I’d just wait until I got to the bottom of the hill and put my seatbelt on at the traffic light. As I’m thinking this, I lost control of the car when I drove through a patch of snow. My car was sent up the hills inclining from the side of the road so quickly, I only remember when my car stopped. It slid back down the hill, but slowly, so I figured the car wouldn’t be too damaged, and I was perfectly fine. I got out of the car to look at the car, and the bumper was just slightly pulled off of the car. I was worried my parents were going to be mad at me if I told them I crashed, so I was trying to handle it myself. My dad used this car a lot, so he had a lot of work tools in the trunk. I found a pipe, which was the most useful thing in the trunk, to try to dig out the front tires, since the snow built up behind them as it slid back down the hill. As I was attempting to dig out my car, a man in a tow truck stopped next to me and he asked if I wanted him to call someone from his company to come get me. I said “yes,” of course, so he said he’ll call someone for me, but he was on his way to get someone else. While I waited for the tow truck to come, I was trying to dig my tires out still, when I stood up for just a moment, and saw a car slide in the exact same spot I did on the road. This car was going very fast on such a snowy day, so when it slid, the car went right up the hill on a slant, it went into the air just a bit, and it came crashing down into my car, while I was standing on the opposite side of where the other car hit. I got hit by my car due to the impact. It slid towards me and had me pinned against it for what felt like five whole minutes, then I fell, and my leg was directly in front of the back tire. I held myself away from the car as much as I possibly could, and thankfully, it was enough. To this day, I refuse to drive in heavy snow and rain because I always go back to that day.