Name: Katie Alice Stinchcomb
From: Santa Cruz, CA
Votes: 0
It happened exactly one night before my Mom was scheduled to take the
test to earn her driver’s license. It was the Fall of 1985 and she
had turned 16 a few months earlier. She went to bed felling like she
was ready for the test and the new step in her life but even so, she
was nervous. At 3:17am, everything changed. Screech…bam! Wham!
The house shook. A car horn blared into the dark night. She was
startled out of a sound sleep and had no idea what had happened, but
she knew it was something terrible. She and my grandfather ran out
in their pajamas. What they saw was unlike anything that they’d
seen in their life.
Two men who
worked together were carpooling home that evening. They had gotten
off their shift and had gone to a bar for a drink. A few too many,
it turned out. At the time, they thought they were fine enough to
drive. Feeling “fine enough” led to a night that dramatically
changed many people’s lives. As the driver came around the
neighborhood’s curving street, he didn’t realize how close he was
to the parked cars. The first car they hit was my grandmother’s
yellow Nova. The impact forced the Nova into the car that was parked
in front of it which was my grandfather’s recently paid off
Plymouth which crumpled up like an aluminum can. The yellow Nova
jumped the curb, screeched across our driveway and hit the neighbor’s
garage. It stopped there but the drunk driver did not. His car
continued down the street about 10 houses away until the engine
failed. The driver hit his head which rested on the wheel, causing
the horn to blare. The work friend somehow wasn’t badly injured,
and he was able to scramble out of the car and disappear into the
night.
The burnt rubber
smell from the car tires still hung over the houses. The driver would
thankfully survive. My mom took the driver’s test that afternoon
and passed. She learned an important lesson and she has never
forgotten how important it is to be a defensive, responsible driver.
She taught me that anything can distract a person. Anything from
drugs to texting, adjusting your radio and smoking—even what was
only supposed to be a few alcoholic drinks can slow down reaction
time and alter a person’s attention. When I went for my permit,
she told me what happened that awful night although she knew that I
would be a safe driver. She had firsthand experience of what can
happen in a split second and she didn’t want anything to harm me.
To this day, she models what good drivers should do. She puts the
phone in her purse and she never drinks if she knows she will be
driving. Now, every time I get behind the wheel, I keep in mind that
I am in control of the car and am accountable for everyone’s
safety.
