It Won’t Happen to Me

Gabrielle Carden

Driver’s Ed Essay Contest

It Won’t Happen to Me

The alarm didn’t go off this morning, the clothes in the dryer were still wet, and the fresh cup of coffee spilled all over the kitchen floor. Many people would contemplate skip school due to madness transpiring. However, an effort is made to get there on time. There is a total of ten minutes to get ready and head out the door. What seemed like an impossible task was indeed impossible, finally getting out the door in 20 minutes. Poor proper planning can create these situations that can cause people to have a poor outcome of running late. One unsafe driving practice among fellow young drivers is speeding when in a rush. Another habit is many people believe that they can accomplish morning regimens in route, like doing hair/make-up. These two habits should be avoided because they can cause distracted dangerous driving.

I can speak on this from a personal experience. I was running late to go and have dinner with some friends. I was 20 minutes behind and thought that I could cut that time at least in half and be only 10 minutes late to the function. I was also attempting to do my make-up in the car as well. While using one hand to stroke the eyelashes of one eye with the mascara wand and my eyes were attempting to focus on the road, I began to drift into the other lane. My mind was focusing on not lumping my eyelashes, and by the time I released that I had drifted too far, it was too late. I hit another car on the side and caused my car to spin out of control on the highway while going 70 mph. Once the vehicle stopped, I sat staring in disbelief because I couldn’t believe what just happened. Thankfully the other driver and I had no injuries. Initially, I didn’t know how it happened. I thought I was so skilled to be able to multitask while driving. I had the mid-set of “It won’t happen” to me. I was in shock that it did happen to me, and instead of accepting being 20 late, I missed the entire dinner.

There is a false notion that when running late, the lost time can be made up through speeding and rushing in the car. This idea, however, is the complete opposite. When someone is speeding in the car, the reasonable amount of time is decreased by a couple of minutes, not significant enough to make a difference. Since speed is a matter of distance over time, the amount of time saved can be calculated. An example of this is if the distance to the destination is fifteen miles and the speed limit of the entire trip is 55 mph. If a driver were to go ten over at 65 mph, this would save 2 minutes and 51 seconds. This doesn’t incorporate red lights, stop signs, traffic, and slow drivers on the road who seem to have nowhere to be.

The trade-off with speeding to arrive at a destination on time can result in a car accident, traffic ticket, or hitting a pedestrian. It is not worth it mathematically or obviously to speed. This doesn’t accomplish the goal of arriving at a location sooner. It can be challenging to tell oneself not to rush when running late, but it is a habit that must be learned.

Additionally, many people will try to cut corners when running late and do morning routines in the car, like doing make-up. If one incorporates speeding and doing make-up in the car, this increases the chances of a poor outcome significantly. When driving in the car, the only focus should be getting to the destination safely. Hair and make-up should be done beforehand or after. When a situation arises causing someone to run late, an essential piece of advice is to leave the house and wait until the destination to finish getting ready.

The hardest part about being a new young driver is trying to control the emotions that come with it. It can be easy to create bad habits that can result in poor driving techniques. The most significant piece of advice to offer is when running late, resist speeding and being distracted while driving. The main goal is to get to the destination in one piece without getting in accidents or getting a speeding ticket, so why increase the chances of both transpiring? Decrease the stress and remind oneself that speeding won’t shave much time anyway. Speeding and distracted driving is a risk that isn’t worth to be taken.