Steer Clear WITHOUT the PHONE

Sometimes people don’t understand the risk of getting from one place to another. We drive so often from place to place sometimes we forget the basic safety precautions when driving. This includes putting on your seatbelt, making sure you are awake, making sure there are no distractions, making sure the weather is good, and even going the speed limit as well as being aware of your surroundings. We all get in a hurry when we travel, but what happens when all of a sudden you are in the hospital not breathing on your own. This is a scary thought, but it is true. The more and more people that seem to not care, make irresponsible decisions, and get in such a big hurry is when we see a problem with the world. When this happens we see collision, trauma, stress, and this is what tears society apart. When I was around 14-16 years old I always wanted to drive, so my parents didn’t have to drive me around all of the time. Although in my life during those ages, I had the worst behavior. I had gotten influenced by the wrong people and had a very big attitude. This was unnecessary behavior that I thought was necessary. I am a strong believer that steps taken to reduce deaths and injuries due to driving are we the people. Everything in life that we do is because something influenced you, then you thought about, then the big one, you took action. People make up the world and wouldn’t be the same without us. Who you surround yourself with usually is an influence to you, with that being said, who you surround yourself around puts your life and future in risk. For instance, if your friend invites you to a party and encourages you to drink alcohol, you go because that friend asked and drink a few beers because they encouraged you to. That one friend that asked you one thing, put your life and future in risk. That one party can change your whole life and others. My fifth grade teacher was in a serious car accident with a drunk driver. The drunk driver hit the car that she was in and many others were in. Having her as a teacher I could tell that it had changed her life. She had talked about it in our class a lot and how it changed her life. Another big thing I have experienced and seen is texting and driving. This is a big issue that many people struggle with, much like me. I know that many of my friends have either been rear ended or have gotten rear ended due to this. A few months after I got my license, I would drive with my parents to my soccer practice about an hour away. When my parents felt comfortable with me driving and when I had confidence in the area where I would be going, they would let me drive myself. When my parents weren’t in the car, I sometimes had too much confidence, I would go on my phone a lot, and remember I was still new at driving, so I was not at all experienced. Little did I know, I was about to get humbled. Many people told me to not be on my phone while driving, but my attitude didn’t budge. One night I was driving back home from practice at 10:30 and I got back to my hometown, so I figured I knew the roads well enough that I could check my snapchats. I was clearly not, because I hit the curb on a bridge and was very fortunate to not fall off the bridge. All because of that one snap that wasn’t even close to semi important, I had to pay $500 to fix the front of my car. Many broke teenagers do not have enough money to buy a car, let alone fix it. It was late at night too, and right after practice, all I wanted to do was lay down and go to bed to get a goodnight sleep for school the next day. It was scary and it didn’t only teach me, but encouraged me to share my story with some of my friends at high school the next day to not be on your phone while driving. This taught me awareness, and that sometimes if you don’t follow the driving laws when you are in a hurry, it can take you even longer, as it did in my situation. Ever since then I had come to realize, lost the attitude, surrounded myself with better people, and most importantly put the phone down when driving.