Reckless Driver

Statistics show that in the past 3 years, there have consistently been over 1,000 car accidents per year. Considering the fact that one of those years was covid, the average amount of accidents per year is astronomical. A whole year where people were basically forced to stay in their house had over 1,000 car related fatalities. Being someone who has seen family members affected by car accidents and having been in a car accident I strongly believe in the importance of safe driving. Fatal injuries that are results from drunk driving or distracted drivers are constantly increasing.

Clearly the importance of driving should be transparent and taken very seriously. Unfortunately that just isn’t the case and many people drive recklessly and in doing so risk harm to everyone around them. Considering that my job is at a gas station it is expected to run into a good amount of weirdos and frankly not the brightest people. But the amount of people who come in high or drunk and just have been driving is astounding to me. You would think that no one would be on the road under those circumstances but that isn’t how it always goes. The importance of teaching safe driving and enforcing it could save so many lives. It would hopefully lower the number of drunk and high drivers thus lowering the amount of driving accidents.

I wish it were possible to magically solve this problem and list the exact steps that would stop tragedies like those from happening. But it can’t be that simple and I barely know where to start. One step that could be taken is closing bars earlier in the night time so that people aren’t drinking so late and are less inclined to make a poor decision. Now I realize how many people would be enraged by this but if it lowered the number of deaths then I don’t see why it isn’t worth trying. At least to my logic that is. Another step could be making alcohol just a little more difficult to access. Not impossible but it isn’t necessary that gas stations are serving beer. The last step I want to bring up is stricter laws about being on your phone while driving. It takes one glance at your phone to get into a car crash. Other than that I don’t know what I could confidently say as a step to take.

My mom was in a serious car accident early this year in March. When I got that notification on my phone I was in class. I immediately jumped to the worst possible scenario that she could be dead. She was on her way home from work and she always takes the highway. There was a truck behind her that was speeding and not paying attention. My mom had to put her foot on the brake and the car behind her didn’t stop in time. She ended up with the back of her car caved in and in the hospital. She was fine and extremely lucky that things weren’t any worse than that, which they easily could’ve been worse. My mom was traumatized and couldn’t drive for a couple weeks after because it was terrifying for her. I have never been the driver in a car accident but I got in a very minor accident with my sister while she was driving. The damage was so minor and we left the scene with the front of the car being dented. When it comes to driving I am willing to do whatever it takes to make the road safer for me and other drivers. I stay off my phone and avoid eating while driving so I have as little distractions as possible. I also don’t drink or smoke at all so I will never be responsible for the death of someone for being under the influence.

Thankfully I have not lost any close friends or family to any kind of driving related accident. I do, however, know lots of people who have lost their friends and family due to these terrible circumstances. It is such a hard thing to watch people you love go through a mentally and emotionally draining experience. And to expect the world to be rid of incompetent drivers at all is obviously ridiculous but I sincerely hope that very soon people get their act together and realize how important it is to be a safe driver. They put themselves in someone else’s shoes who have suffered this tragic loss and maybe think before they get behind the wheel.