When Uncle Wouldn’t Listen

When Uncle Wouldn’t Listen

I was 14 years old. My uncle was driving me back to my parents’ house after I’d gone to visit him for the weekend. I was being chatty, per usual. His sixth month old son drooled and gurgled in the backseat the entire time, as if he was competing with me for his father’s attention.

But what we were really competing with was his phone.

His work friends kept messaging him about work, and he made sure to read every text. I remember counting the seconds in my head, gulping and thinking about how far we’d blindly traveled in the three seconds it took for him to check a message.

And when the silver SUV crossed the intersection from the left, and uncle flew through the red stoplight he didn’t see, and large horn blaring suddenly burst from every direction, I thought about how it might feel, being crushed like a tin can.

I, now older, cannot help but remember that near death experience whenever I drive. And not only then, but also when others drive. I don’t dare look back to talk to people in my backseat. If the music’s too loud for me to hear any honking beside me, I turn the radio off. I don’t eat or check my makeup in the mirrors or look out the window to point out a drunk man stumbling by to amuse my friends. I lecture my passengers who don’t have their seatbelts on. They know I won’t drive until they do. I abide by the speed limits. My phone stays out of sight and out of mind, zipped in my purse hidden in the glove compartment. And I drive defensively, not offensively, because I’d rather give another driver the right of way than give up my right to live.

These are only a few of the lessons you learn in drivers’ education classes, and teachers not only inform you of these practices but force you to be aware of the lives at stake when you fail to practice what you’ve learned. And in this way, you, as a new driver, already know to be cautious from the very beginning, helping to protect not only the people around you but yourself as well.

You don’t need a near death experience to push you to drive safely. You drive safely so you don’t have that near death experience to begin with. I’m sure you’ve heard the numbers, the terrifying statistics.

But one you may not know is this; driver-related factors, whether that be intoxication, fatigue, texting, or anything else of the sorts which we have the ability to control, are present in nearly 90% of crashes.

So this, the fatalities caused by drinking and tailgating and disregarding stop signs and multitasking with phone calls, is on us. Everyone must take responsibility. We cannot continue to add to these stats, and we must avoid becoming these numbers, being the additional tally to an annual fatality count.

Just drive safely. Please.