Importance of Safe Driving

Coriya Edwards

Importance of Safe Driving

This essay is near and dear to me because just this year on June 24^th on my mom’s birthday at approximately 1:23pm in the afternoon my moms coworker, which they have worked together for over 20 years and his children knew me and I knew them. One of his daughters Jhanae Ingraham was headed home from USF with her boyfriend and the traffic was at a standstill due to another accident while sitting in traffic an 18 wheeler truck wasn’t paying attention and slammed into not only jhanae’s vehicle but 8 other cars 3 people were killed in the crash. In which jhanae was unfortunately killed and her boyfriend in a 3 month long coma. He just came out of his coma September and is currently trying to learn how to walk again, and on top of that he learned that his longtime college sweetheart is no longer here. This along with me and my mom being in a accident when I was only 7 years old and I was knocked under the dash board on my moms car we were at a red light and a car with a driver that was not paying attention and slammed into the back of my moms car. Fortunately we were not injured but if you have ever experienced an accident it causes a certain level of anxiety when it comes to driving. I believe that people would stop texting while driving, and talking on the phone while driving I feel their would be less accidents in this world. Paying attention to the road is an extremely important part of safe driving. Drivers education courses should be taken seriously and could definitely prevent accidents. I feel a lot of young people my age really just go through the drivers education course to obtain license but don’t take the information seriously. I was a nervous wreck learning to drive due to the accident I had experienced and although my mom wasn’t the cause of the accident it was a young man who admitted to not paying attention and being reckless by trying to take a selfie while driving. I still feel the affects of that accident. I find myself tensing up on occasions when in the car with others. But that accident also caused me to be more mindful of how I drive and how I encourage my friends to drive. I try and follow all rules of the road and although I understand that it will not prevent anyone else from hitting me it will limit the number of accidents that I cause and that my friends cause. In memory of Jhanae Ingraham I write this essay encouraging people to please pay attention to the road and know that peoples lives are at stake whenever we get behind the wheel of a car. So don’t just drive for your safety but drive for the safety of everyone that is on the road around you. I pray that everyone will begin to look out for each other on the dangerous roads.