Cars and Ice Cream: The Imperfect Pair

Distracted driving doesn’t seem like a problem to distracted drivers until something actively happens. Everyone thinks nothing bad will happen to them until they are the victim or cause of an accident. I had the same mindset, that “I’m a good driver nothing can happen to me”, but it’s other irresponsible drivers. We constantly see in the news how people become victims of other people’s distracted driving. You would think that the more we discuss this serious topic, the more people will understand its severity. It is a pattern with distracted car crashes that the distracted driver ends up just fine, while the driver they hit ends up the opposite, in pain or dead. No one understands how serious this is until they have gone through it themselves or unless they were close to someone who was affected by distracted driving. Sometimes dying isn’t the worst thing that can happen to the victims of distracted driving, it could be severe brain damage, paralyzation, or things that only doctors would know. It is sickening how little people will care, specifically adults and young adults. You would think those who still have so much life left would take necessary precautions to protect their life. There needs to be solutions to this problem or my rigorous consequences or it will continue to get worse.

I think everyone should consider the consequences of distracted driving, but they are always too involved in the moment without any thinking. Do you know who was also too involved and not thinking while driving? My brother. My brother falls into the young adult demographic, and his irresponsibility shows through in and throughout. It is a very prominent memory for me, but I’m not sure that it matters much to anyone else. I can remember it vividly, I was fifteen, going into my sophomore year of high school. So many changes were happening at this time of my life so to say everyone was disoriented is brushing the surface. It doesn’t help that alcoholism runs in my family, and I didn’t acknowledge it or understand it until that year. It was just another night, my sister, cousin, and I were hanging out in the only bedroom downstairs. I was playing my brother’s gaming console, while my sister was doing my cousin’s hair. Maybe an hour into hanging out, my brother stumbles into the room, so obviously drunk. He denied it of course but it didn’t matter much to me because he was home, and it was around nine p.m. My mom came into the room about 25 minutes later to use the restroom, and she noticed my brother’s behavior, she even verbally announced how drunk he was. Again, I didn’t think anything of it until she sent a text to our family group chat, and it asked if my brother could drive with me to get her ice cream.

Ice cream from a place about twenty to twenty-five minutes away. She wanted me to sit in the car with my brother, who was drunk, to get her ice cream. I was in disbelief, but I followed through with it because at the time her word was God, and no matter how scared I was, I couldn’t say no. It didn’t make sense to me that two other teenagers who had their licenses and were completely sober couldn’t go, but the teenager with no driving experience and the drunk driver seemed absolutely capable. So, my brother and I went, and not only was he drunk while driving, but he was on his phone. I never felt that type of fear before, every time the car swerved, I wanted to cry. It was the longest trip of my life, and once I finally made it home unscathed, thankfully, I went to bed angry. So upset with my mother that she could put her children’s lives, and any other driver’s life, in danger, all because she wanted ice cream. And after experiencing this and getting an apology from just my brother, who had no recollection of this event, it made me become serious. Losing your life in a car accident is so quick and unexpected, and no one nor their families should have to experience the pain or grief. The best way for me to help is to never be quiet, never let others feel comfortable driving distracted, and never let the friends I am with drive distracted. It seems small but if everyone has this mindset, things will change, and they so desperately need to be changed.