Cars are a luxury but also a weapon

Cars are a luxury
but also a weapon

Every parent has
fears for their children. New milestones arise as we age. Most
milestones reach us in our late teens and early twenties. We graduate
from high school, we go to college, get our first jobs, and we get
our driver’s license. Often times parents would joke and say: “be
careful so-and-so is on the road now”. Sometimes that statement
could be true and deadly.

Over the years, I
heard my fair share of accident stories. On the news, we hear stories
of an accident involving a motorcyclist and a car on the highway far
too often. Or we hear about hit and runs involving children getting
off a school bus. One of the biggest common denominators we hear in
these stories is texting while driving. Despite seeing signs
everywhere on the highways that contains statistics of deaths
involved, no one pays attention. Commonly, most people will find
themselves yelling at others on the road for texting while driving
but we repeat the action. Lifes are being lost because we can’t
simply put down our phones or pull off to the side of the road to
respond to an “important” text.

When I was in
drivers school, my driving instructor would always mention the costs
of texting and/or drinking while driving. These are the most common
causes of major car accidents which unfortunately end in the death of
a driver, friend, and/or family member. More often than not, people
don’t think about how their actions affect another person. You aren’t
just affecting that one person or yourself, you are affecting your
family, their family, your friends, their friends, etc. One thing
that I have experienced myself, road rage.

Every person has
road rage, any age, gender, or beliefs, though the severity of this
road rage depends on the person. Some will simply call someone
“stupid” for an action they did even if it is said under
their breath and some will get out of their cars and threaten the
other driver. Most people view road rage as the latter opinion when
in reality it has a huge spectrum of severity. I will not deny, I
have road rage, though I am the person who comments about someone
being “stupid” under my breath. Sometimes I say what I want
to say to them in my head and don’t comment about it at all. I bring
road rage into this essay because this also causes accidents and
deaths.

On my way to a
college class, I was taking College Credit Plus is high school, I
experienced road rage from another directed at my family and I. My
mother was driving the car on the highway and a lady was merging into
our lane on the highway and had barely missed our front bumper. Of
course out of a reaction, my mother honked the horn to let the lady
know we were there and right behind her. The lady watched my mothers
blinker and exitted off the same exit as us. At the exit, our lane
was a continuous right turn, of course this didn’t matter to the lady
in front of us, she stopped. All of the cars behind us were honking
making the lady angier. She began to move forward so my mother
started to move and looked to the next lane to get over because the
street we need to turn down was on the other side of the road. The
second my mother looked away, the lady in front of us slammed on her
brakes and we hit her back end. I have seen road rage on the road but
it never happened to me and it scared me. As a result, my mind was
scarred and I am deathly terrified of getting in car accidents.
Everyone fears accidents but my fear causes me to have panic attacks
and will prevent me from wanting to go on car rides. I have to blare
music through my headphones to distract me when someone drives on the
highway with me in the car.

The following steps
I will take to become a safer driver and a better driver. I welcome
everyone to take these same steps to become a better and safer driver
yourself. First, mute your phone. If it is important who ever is
calling or texting you will understand that your safety and others on
the road is more important than responding. Second, buckle. Always
buckle, this is the cause of many deaths all over the world. They
aren’t there to look cute or as a suggestion to buckle, they are
there to protect your life and potentially save your life. Third,
breath. Breath and pay attention, don’t let road rage take control.
Fourth, know when you need a DD, designated driver. Even if you are
under age and you think your parents will be mad, believe me having
an angry parent is better then being dead or being in jail because
you killed someone. Most of the time the parent may not even be
angry, you calling them is a responsible move and they see that.

Cars are a luxury to
own. You get to brag to your friends about your new car and how you
can take them places when they need it. You get to go to places you
couldn’t before because no one wanted to take you there. But cars
aren’t just a luxury, they are a weapon and a dangerous one. Many
lives have been lost don’t let yours or someone else’s at the
result of your hands be one of them.