My safety story

It was the summer going into junior year I had just got done working with my father, so he was driving in front of me to make sure I didn’t get lost on our way home, my brother was in the passenger seat that day riding with me instead of my dad so I could get use to driving someone else. But that day didn’t make me more confident. It made me scared of the way other people drive. I could hear the echo of my car horn as it plowed into the side of the car. The tires screeched and my ears rang. I looked over to see my brother still dazed from what had happened. My eyes start to water and tears rush down my face. I had never been so shocked by fear, of the uncertainty of not knowing what had happened to the other person.

I wasn’t on my phone, I was simply talking to my brother beside me while my eyes were still on the road. I had done everything right yet I was the one still sobbing with fear. We were driving down a hill and the woman who was stopped at a T intersection, said she had seen my dad pass her, looked at her phone for a quick second and then drove which concluded in our accident. Certain steps must be taken in order to prevent more stories like mine. Such as making it a requirement to be educated in school about safety guidelines because most students aren’t fully aware in their home environment . For example keeping your phone on driving mode, telling whomever you are talking to that you will now be driving. Listing a few of these simple examples can go a long way to make the roads a safer place.

Just like putting more effort into teaching driver’s education at school I believe that drivers education should be taken more seriously by fellow students or anyone who wishes to drive. I hear lots of people say they didn’t take the time to watch all the videos and fully engage in them because they simply didn’t believe it could happen to them. They truly believed that it was a fairy tale and they would never be in an accident. But taking drivers Ed to its full extent could save a life or keep them from trauma. There are lots of movies and examples that we can put together to show how focused you need to be. Not just focused on what you are doing but what people around are doing. In Houston many people don’t use their blinker lights being able to spot that and be on the lookout for other people could just save there’s and your life.

3,610 this was the death toll for Texas’s deaths caused by motor transportation in 2019 although it went down from 2018 by 1.15%. I see this as a great loss, a loss that could be changed by the people if we took more initiative in our own driving skills. Over 20 years, it’s been over 20 years since Texas has had a death less day by motor vehicles November 7,2000 this was the day that was reported to have no deaths by a motor transportation vehicle. Every day since then there has been an accident resulting in a tragedy like the loss of property or worst a loved one’s life being taken.

As a community, speaking as in the whole state of Texas, we need to make changes in the way we see, think, and do in our driving abilities. There are ways to make a better tomorrow just by putting up our phone, this alone has caused hundreds of deaths in our 20 year period of crashes. Being able to know when you are not safe to drive is known as drinking and driving, or drug use and driving. These alone are a major factor in the death toll.

I still have the scare for when the side of the door caved in. It’s been over 2 years and I can still remember everything. This changed my view on driving and made me want to do what I can to help people understand that this is a serious matter. Telling my friends that texting and driving deaths are real and have real consequences.

I still put my phone on driving mode and don’t answer and when I do I pull over and am always aware of my surroundings to keep me and other drivers safe.