Too Close for Comfort

Morgan
Elzey

Driver’s
Education Award

20
May 2020

Too Close for Comfort

When your 16 with a crisp new
license, and your hands grasped around the steering wheel, it feels
as if you can go and do whatever you want. You ride down the road
blaring music with the windows down. While having your phone in hand
scrolling through your playlist to find the next best song for you
and your friends to jam to. This is when most people think car
accidents happen, but it is not the only time it can. A car wreak can
happen anytime, if you are not paying attention. Something that you
think is so subtle, like changing the temperature dial, replying to a
text, or looking at yourself in the mirror can result in a car
accident. People always say, “It’s the little things in life that
matter”. Well, it is the little things in driving that matter too.

About two years ago now, I was
on the way home from the grocery store with my mom and little
brother. We had just passed over the crest of the hill and met the
stoplight. All of a sudden, out of the corner of my eye, I saw
something fly by and just miss hitting the mirror of the passenger
side door. It flew into the ditch and flipped onto its side. It was a
semi-truck, with timber as its cargo. Many people rushed to aid the
driver of the semi-truck. While my mother, brother, and I sat in
disbelief of what just happened. My mother then decided to call 911
to report the accident. After we got home, we all were shaken up
about what could have happened. The driver of the semi-truck could
have reacted a second too late, and we could have been seriously hurt
or even worse. I do not know if he was distracted driving that caused
this, or if his drivers ed helped him to make a decision that
saved my families lives. That driver may have never been on that road
before, and because of that he did not know all the turns or
stoplights on the road. This is also why you should take every road
with precaution, and at the speed limit. I am forever thankful of the
outcome of this accident, because the driver of the semi-truck was
unharmed as well.

The drivers ed that
semi-truck driver had was probably what saved my family’s lives
that day. The semi-truck driver must have known how to properly react
to the situation he was in, and this is all thanks to driver’s
education. Drivers ed is so important and vital to keeping our
roads safe. There needs to be this sort of instruction to inform
people on how to react if something bad happens when they are
driving. The only way drivers ed will help lower the death
rate is if people take it seriously. It is a serious thing to know
and always take into consideration. The thing that probably was the
start of the whole situation was that he was not practicing safe
driving to begin with. He might have been scrolling through his
phone, not paying attention, and more than likely going over the hill
too fast. In many cases, this leads to an accident being too close
for comfort.

There are multiple things that
can reduce the number of deaths related to driving. These steps are
simple and can easily become your new driving habits. Take your
drivers ed into play, and this will be a major improvement.
I know that we all have cellphones now, and all of our elders say we
are addicted. I would like to say we are not addicted, but we truly
are if we cannot even seem to put our phone away while we drive. We
cannot put this addiction before the lives of the ones around us. I
keep my phone in my purse, or even simply in my console if I have it
plugged into aux. When I am with my friends or family, and they are
trying to use their phone while driving, I simply say, “That can
wait”. My friends and I even have the person riding shotgun to be
the one in charge of aux, directions, and anything else in the car,
except the driving. That part is left up to the actual driver of the
car. I have to admit, when I first started driving, I had the
mindset, “oh it will never happen to me, because I know what I am
doing”. That is not true at all for anyone. You always need to be
prepared to react to anything and everything. Your life can flash
right before your eyes and most of the time it is not only your life,
but the lives of others too.

Driving is a privilege, and we
need to do our best to keep others in the car with us and around us
safe. Most importantly, you need to do it to keep yourself safe.
There is always someone praying for you to arrive to your destination
safely.