The Aftermath That Distracted Drivers Inflict

Being a safe driver is never guaranteed. There will be things that happen on the road that will be out of your control. As my mom says “You got to drive for everyone else on the road nowadays.” And aspects of that statement are true. I have had some close calls myself. People use the wrong turn signals, casually ignore speed limits going 15+ mph over the speed limit, and people use their headlights when driving at night.

All of these can easily cause tremendous accidents that can injure and forever impact the lives of not just the people in the accident, but family and friends as well. Some of those people were probably single parents going home from work to take care of their children. It could be someone’s wife who had just gotten married. Or it could be a Grandpa who just came back from Autozone and spent $600 on parts to fix his truck.

I remember the afternoon of September 23rd vividly. My mom had just got the dinner table set up and she got a call from my Grandma thinking my Grandpa made it home from Autozone getting his truck fixed. His taillights, windshield wipers, and other miscellaneous things needed repair so he went out and spent that $600 on the car. Instead, it was a call that he got into a serious accident.

The distress in my Mom’s voice filled my body with a disturbing chill. She then ran to wake my Dad up while I got my things to go with them. Adrenaline filled all of us but we had to compose ourselves. The plan was to get Grandma and go to the hospital. The drive to my Grandparent’s house and the hospital was a blur but once we got there to see my Grandpa, he was hooked up with seemingly every wire you could imagine. He was awake and able to talk, thank God. He told us that he had been hit on the driver’s side and was caved in. The firefighters had to get him out using the jaws of life.

Time passed and an officer arrived to discuss what happened to Grandpa. He told us that he got hit on the driver’s side by a possibly distracted driver. There was camera footage of the crash so it was easy to tell that the other driver was at fault. He simply went straight on a slightly curved turn and that made all the difference. There aren’t too many details about the other driver but he had minor injuries and fully recovered.

Amazingly at 81 years old, my Grandpa left the hospital the same day of the crash with mild rib bruising and damaged confidence. On the other hand, his truck was totaled, and there couldn’t be anything done to fix it. He has gone through weeks of physical therapy and is steadily getting better but he’s scared to get back behind the wheel. He works at Walmart but due to a lack of transportation and him still needing physical therapy, it will be a while before he gets back to work and it hurts my Grandpa so much because he is a workaholic. He yearns to work every day. This accident shook his confidence so much that he’s discouraged to buy a new car let alone get behind the wheel again.

This is my personal example of how careless driving can impact a whole family. The importance of being fully aware of your surroundings when driving is imperative to make sure that accidents like these don’t happen. In my opinion, the solution to reduce the number of deaths driving is making it illegal to have phones near the driver. People can have phones in the car but it should be in a glove department. Every modern car has a Bluetooth option so when a text is received, the vehicle notifies you.

Calls and texts can be made with the push of a button on the steering wheels now. There is no excuse for people who have modern vehicles to be distracted by their phones. Another way to reduce deaths is to enforce driving tests every 15 years. Road rules change between that time and people often ignore them because people might say “I know how to drive. These little rules don’t matter to me.” Some rules may be small and not affect an experienced driver but others will. Like in my home state Colorado, next year we’re finally putting in my previously mentioned suggestion that people be fined for being on their phones. How will CDOT (Colorado Department of Transportation) implement this rule? The main concern is how do the police pull over people knowing that they were on their phone?

One step I could take in being a safe driver is eliminating distractions. I keep my phone out of reach every time I drive and this routine is very important for teen drivers like me. Remembering basic rules of the road like when to use turn signals, keeping a safe driving distance for all road conditions, and most importantly, wearing my seatbelt. As a licensed Colorado driver, I have a reputation to hold.

Having a driver’s license is a privilege, not a right. A driver’s license means that you are capable and skilled to be driving on the road with an able and skilled mind. Driving a vehicle is like driving a dangerous weapon. It’s the driver’s objective to stay safe and keep other people in their car, other pedestrians, and fellow drivers on the road safe and minimize the chances of accidents. This is why driving with a license is so important to become a safe driver.