The scariest day of my life

It was a cold December morning. I woke up for school as I always do and started to get ready. I was a junior in high school at the time and we were approaching winter break, so I only had one class to go to that day and afterwards I was able to just relax until my basketball practice started. Or that is what I had thought. As I was finishing getting ready, I yelled at my brother to hurry up. My little brother usually takes the bus but since he was a freshman at the time my mom figured it was better for me to just take him. What she did not realize was that he takes FOREVER to get ready. But once he was done, we said adios to my father as he was working from home this morning and to my mother who was heading to work using my dad’s car. My brother had to be at school early, so we hurried out the door and got into the car and left. Since it was my mother’s car, I knew to make sure all my attention was towards driving, especially since I had just recently gotten my driver’s license and I had a passenger with me. The ride to school was filled with traffic but we eventually made it and on time. My class was super boring, but my teacher knew winter break was approaching so she let us out early which was just what I needed. I had plans on going back home and taking a nap and eating before my practice started later. So, as I left the school it was still early in the morning which meant traffic was still brewing. I was stuck in it for a while, but I quickly got out of it since the path to my school is mainly through neighborhoods. As I approached the third and final stop light on the way to my house it was red so I stopped promptly as anyone else would do thinking “this light takes forever to change”. It was a pretty big intersection where people drive really fast through. I was listening to my favorite rap playlist at the time, and it had started to play one of my favorite songs. As I was feeling the beat and singing along to the lyrics the light switched to green, so I stepped on the gas and made my left turn. Little did I know there was a car coming completely perpendicular to me making direct contact with the front of my car and as soon as I blinked my car was no longer pointing in the direction of my house but the total opposite. Both of our cars had spun out completely in the middle of the intersection and were both totaled. It was heart wrenching and scary to see my mom’s car broken like the way it was, but she was just happy that I was safe. I found out afterwards that the person who ran into me was on his phone as he was approaching his light and saw that it was yellow thinking he could make it, but it turned red, and he was still behind the crosswalk. All while mine turned green. If he was never on his phone, then maybe he could have seen the light turn red and he then maybe would have never attempted to take the light thus preventing the accident. I also could have made sure each lane was cleared before I decided to take off. But accidents like this happen all the time. Drivers get caught up in a distraction in which they take their eyes off the road and then they end up driving with no clear vision of what is in front of them. I think by implementing a small program that people must take often (yearly/bi-yearly) once they have their license talking about distracted drivers and the consequences of that would be super helpful because other than defensive driving there is no other course that really talks about things like that, that drivers need to take. Being able to properly educate drivers about all of the dangers of driving is super important. Driving is a privilege and I believe that by doing something like this it would help push that idea. Lastly, you not only have to drive for yourself but for others as well because you never know how experienced a person may be at driving and what they may do or not do while on the road. Being able to cut out distractions while driving and not only driving for yourself but for others as well will help make the roads safer.