Life in our Hands

It’s a nice early summer morning. The kind of day where it’s not too hot but the sun shines enough to feel alive. The sky is blue with minimal clouds and every tree is green. I’m just cruising along making my way back home listening to my favorite country music in my beautiful new truck without a care in the world. My white 2003 Ford Ranger with 50,000 miles on it, which is amazing by the way, was glistening in the sun from its recent bath.

I pulled to a stop to turn left onto my road to go home as the steel guitar echoed over the cab in my truck. I leaned my head back because of the steady stream of perfectly spaced cars. One of those minor annoyances but nothing big enough to ruin my mood. WHAM! My head is absorbed by the head cushion as my foot slams the brake to the ground. My first thought was how I felt like I just got blindsided in football. A familiar feeling I have not felt in a while and it almost felt nice then reality hit me. Oh, I just got hit! Man this is a big inconvenience. Was it my fault? Is my beautiful truck alright? Man this day was just going good. I’m going to call mom.

Mom calmly responded and arrived promptly to the scene. I dropped down out of my truck in shock. I went to the back to view the damage and people stopped and asked if I’m ok and I kindly said yes and moved on with my inspection. The first thing I noticed was that the young lady who hit me was deeply distressed and appeared panicked. She was still holding the wheel with tight fists as if it was the only thing keeping her alive and crying hysterically. From the looks of her Toyota SUV whose front is now crumpled and airbags out it appeared that her car was at very high speed upon impact, indicating that she never saw my truck completely stopped with blinker on waiting to make a left hand turn. As I observed the scene and shook out of my shock, I immediately called 911.

My mom and the firefighters showed up at the same time and started to ask me questions and I told them what happened while they laid the girl on the ground while she was having a panic attack. I moved my truck out of the way but her car wasn’t going anywhere. I don’t know if her car ever saw the road again so praise God I got out safely.

In her case, she was reaching down to grab an inhaler. It could’ve just as easily been a phone, ball, pen or any other item. In my opinion, no matter how much we preach, eyes on the road, not everyone will listen but that doesn’t stop us from driving. I think the biggest thing we could tell people is to just be aware. Maybe phones could have a little reminder or cars that just put it into peoples mind to drive safely. Just bringing it up consistently I think could reduce crashes at least minorly but those cheesy ads with the bad acting don’t really help and probably does the opposite.

If we share our stories about how accidents cause death, we instinctively will be more cautious. A girl at my school died last year due to a fatal car accident and the awareness spread in the community like a wildfire. Not saying that we need to wait for a tragedy to happen but when it does awareness needs to be raised. When we share our tragedies then others will think twice about reaching for their phone or speeding on a windy road.

While enforcing drivers education for teens can be overwhelming due to time commitment and the way the content is presented I don’t think any sane person would deny this. Including drivers education as subtly and consistently as possible, like as I mentioned before in the car when it starts up or on a smartphone could provide ongoing training for people of all ages, not just teenagers. It seems that it would be helpful to offer more consistent assessments for all drivers to keep safety on the forefront of every licensed driver’s mind. Many healthcare companies offer incentives for members to be part of health plans, fitness and gyms in order to help in clients staying healthy. Likewise it could be helpful if car insurance plans offered incentives for drivers to have a number of safety course hours each year for discounted insurance plans.

The biggest problem in my opinion is substance abuse before driving. Drunk driving remains a significant problem, and while there’s no overnight fix, we’ve seen cultural shifts before—like the decline in smoking rates. If we could foster a stigma around driving under the influence or improve access to mental health care, maybe we could see similar progress over time.

For now, I’m just grateful. Grateful that I walked away from the accident unscathed, and grateful for the reminder to stay vigilant on the road. Life is unpredictable, and while we can’t control everything, we can do our part to make the roads safer for everyone. Today, I can choose to be more aware, pay attention to the roads all around me while ensuring I have no distractions in my vehicle. Additionally, I can encourage those around to take seriously the responsibility they have when they are behind the wheel.