Name: Savannah Sunshine
From: Petaluma, California
Votes: 0
One
Split Second
Have
you ever wondered what life would be like if you made even one,
small, different decision? The decision to check the text you
received from your mom, or opening Spotify to turn on your favorite
song while cruising down the highway on a road trip? One split second
that you take your focus off of the road can be a deadly mistake; all
it takes is one split second. Across the nation, 1.3 million people
die from car crashes each year, with 20 to 50 million more being
disabled from crashes. Millions of people, newborns to elders, are
stripped from our lives due to collisions which can often be avoided.
Last
year, I had the opportunity to be apart of the program called Every
Fifteen Minutes. Through this program I was able to encounter what my
life would be like after my brother’s death through a simulation.
After months of filming, listening to parents who had tragically lost
their children due to unsafe driving, and watched my brother “die”
in a horrendous car accident, I had a whole new vision and reality
surrounding the topic of careful driving. This program felt like a
real tragedy; streams of tears rushed down my face like a broken
chain of diamonds, and my heart was overwhelmed with devastation
while I watched the crash scene emerges on the screen in front of my
school. My mother was visited by a policeman at her work who informed
her that her son had tragically been killed in a car accident.
Although she knew in her mind that this was in fact not real, her
emotions overwhelmed her as she too let out an abundance of tears.
Additionally, my father who was at home, opened the front door after
hearing the doorbell ring. On the doorstep was a different policeman
to deliver the news about my brother.
Going
to school became a task for me that day knowing that I will hear the
obituary for my brother read allowed in front of thousands gathered
at my school to watch this simulation emerge. Not only that, but I
had to walk past a group of tombstones; the one in front had my
brother’s name printed on it in bold letters. I listened as my
mother read allowed her goodbye letter to my brother filled with
happy memories from his childhood and words we wish we could have
said before he “passed away.” The first time I saw my brother
again since the program began was when he walked down the aisle
alongside a casket, marching to the music that is played during a
funeral.
This
program has allowed me to share my experience with others and inform
them of the horrific outcomes that can emerge if unsafe driving takes
place. The next time you have the urge to send the email you meant to
send at work, think to yourself if that little task is worth a life
whether it is your own, or someone else’s?
