The Simplest Way to Save a Life

My mom and I were making our weekly drive down the beltline when the car in the other lane and only a small distance ahead used its turn signal and began to drift right in front of us. The driver hadn’t checked their blindspot, and there would be no way that we’d be able to brake in time. Inside the car were two blissfully ignorant teenage boys laughing like they were having the time of their lives. Seeing the imminent crash, Mom honked her horn. Alerted by the sound, the driver saw us and corrected himself in time. For a moment he replaced his smile with a wide-eyed look of innocence, then quickly laughed it off and carried on with his day. But if he had followed through, it would have been a stressful day at best or a bloody end at worst. Automobiles are an incredible invention. They are real life teleporters in that they transport us from one place to another at dizzying speeds. However, this makes them equally as effective as death machines to all that stand in their path, especially at highway speeds. Everyday when we drive, we take for granted that we will make it to our destination, forgetting our own fragility against the force of gravity and how close we come to experiencing it in full. When I still had my permit, I’d get my hours in by driving my grandparents to and from their cabin. My grandpa is very much a side-seat driver because of his anxiety and how accommodated he is to being the one at the wheel. While braving the sharp, blind corners of the country roads, I had a realization that their lives were literally in my hands. Grandpa is right to be constantly anticipating my every move because one lapse in attention, one slip-up could transform a calm ride into a waste of life and a family and community wound. Giving one’s full, unimpeded attention to driving responsibly is one of the simplest ways to save lives, and failure to do so leads to unglorious fatalities.

I know these tragic possibilities are not just theoretical because my own hometown experienced them. One morning, a high school senior who was almost ready to graduate was cruising down a road outside of town and assumed that he could look at his phone since there wasn’t much traffic. What he did not see was a school bus picking up a seventh grade girl. By the time he returned his attention to driving, it was too late. He plowed right into the bus. My best friend overheard through the communications of her own bus that people were checking if the girl was breathing. The girl’s sister and my friend are connected through our school’s tightly-knit orchestra ensemble, and she confirmed by phone call before it was officially announced that she died. A heap of flowers piled up by the middle school, and to this day, I still find signs and bumper stickers around town memorializing her. The boy was one of our school’s best baseball players, and his plans for college and adult life have been crushed by jail time and the label of a murderer. To rub salt into the wound, he had been voted “worst driver” in the yearbook not long before the incident. It’s no joke anymore, and it never will be again. Now he has to travel to different schools retelling his story as a cautionary tale to pay attention to the road.

My own family has also lost a member to a crash. My dad’s cousin, age 21, was riding his motorcycle down the highway when he drifted too close to the center line, and an oncoming truck just so happened to do the same. He had no chance of survival splattered against the truck’s metal armor. It had been a poker night, so he was likely under the influence. The family conducts an annual ride in his memory, while I only know of him from Dad’s shoulder tattoo. On the flip side, one time Dad was just about to go from a stop sign after looking both left and right. He happened to check his left side one last time and saw a young motorcyclist zoom by at highway speeds, even though it was the middle of town. If Dad hadn’t double checked, the cyclist would have shared the same fate as Dad’s cousin. Of course, the cyclist should not have exceeded the speed limit like that, and that made Dad’s job as the only one of the two who was paying attention ever more important.

Just about everyone knows someone whose life was cut short by a vehicle crash, or at least someone who is permanently affected by such an incident. And yet we all keep on driving, hoping to not be next. Except fate isn’t in the driver’s seat; we are. In a day and age where driving seems to be at the bottom of many people’s priorities when they are at the wheel, it’s more important than ever to pay full attention to one’s surroundings while driving. If another person isn’t doing what they should to drive safely, one has twice the responsibility to do so themself in order to prevent a crash, but both parties are still at risk. Therefore, everyone’s cooperation in safe driving, not just a few, is what it will take to keep the number of casualties as close to zero as possible. To do so, follow the takeaways of my stories: Drivers need to keep their eyes on the road, check their mirrors and blindspot for vehicles or pedestrians, respect speed limits, and ask for a ride from someone who is sober when they have been drinking. Set aside those addictive devices, drive with a clear mind, and live in the reality of the here and now. When operating a several ton metal machine flying at higher speeds than almost any animal in nature, control is everything to channel that speed and energy into transportation instead of an accidental weapon of destruction. But what control does one have when they are distracted, impaired, or careless? The fate of many may lie in any driver and their willingness to make the simple choice to pay full attention to where they are going.