What’s Worth More

What’s
Worth More- Jasmine McMoore

Let’s take a
trip inside your head right now. Let’s imagine you’re on the road
with some of your best friends and you guys were heading to the beach
for a chill day together, when all of a sudden a message on your
phone came up and it was too important not to answer right away so
you take a look when BAM… another car just slammed into the side of
your car and the car continues to flip and spin as all of you start
to endure scars on your body and pain everywhere and finally the car
stops. Your trapped, but it seems no one else can hear your cry for
help, but what’s worse is the fact that your friends aren’t
responding. You start to panic and when the medics and police arrive,
and when they do, they pronounce your friend’s dead at the scene
and you’re slowly fading out of conciseness when they put you
inside the ambulance… Now let’s take moment and come back to
reality. Things like this imaginative accident inside our heads
happen every day because drivers now and days are more focused on the
driving part of drivers ed than the education part. Just
because you are older doesn’t mean you can forget about what it
takes to behind the wheel, and just because we are younger doesn’t
mean we need to be oblivious to the driving education we receive in
these 2-hour classes. If you want to reduce the number of deaths, you
first must teach people about defensive driving and teach people that
drivers ed classes are not a waste of time, but informative of how
you can stay alive on the road and protect everyone around you.

Now when we think
of the word driving, we believe it is this simple task of getting
from point A to point B, but really there is more to it then most
people realize especially with people in the car. Most deaths in
driving come from distracted drivers to busy trying to take care of a
simple task while trying to keep control of the car, which causes
them to either put their lives on the line by causing a crash or
waiting to finish the task when the car is not in motion keeping
themselves and everyone else safe. Most steps to reduce the number of
deaths related to driving are mostly simple things such as following
speed limits and keeping safe distances between you and other cars so
when you brake, if the car doesn’t stop right away you still have
room to safely brake without rear-ending someone. Another step you
can take is putting your cellular device on “Do not Disturb” or
airplane mode, so you will not be tempted to text and drive, but also
to make sure you won’t be trying to capture the perfect selfie all
while your speeding through a stale yellow light. Plus, one more step
to help prevent Driving related deaths is by putting on your seatbelt
each time you are about to drive anywhere. Seatbelts are not there
just for scenery, but they are there to keep you from flying around
the car and preventing you from killing others in the car if there
were to be an accident. It does not matter weather the seatbelt is
cool or not, Is not putting on your seatbelt because your cool, worth
your life?

Well if you haven’t caught on to how much driving is super
important then let me share a life experience with you about some of
the things I have seen. I was riding down I-75 one day with my mom
and we were just listening to the radio on low while having a
conversation about something, when traffic all of a sudden started
braking fast and it started to get backed up. When we finally got up
to the point of acceleration in traffic I looked to my right and I
saw a 3-car pile up and over 10 police, but the worse part was seeing
the man who got out of his car and seemed like he was crying. I saw
the officer walk over, and I’m sure it wasn’t good news, but by
the time I saw him walk over we were already out of traffic and back
to a reasonable flow. That moment in itself changed me or at least
changed my perspective. It really had me feeling a certain way,
because just the way that mans whole demeanor changed and he started
to cry really made me think about how driving doesn’t just affect
you and your mental and physical being, but it effects your loved
ones and people around you.

Time and time
again people usually forget that when driving your life depends on
your cars condition and the driver inside the car, so some steps to
make sure I’m a safe driver is first keeping my car in check and
making sure its in good condition to travel every time I’m about to
head to another destination. Another thing I would say to make me and
others a safe driver is by arranging your music, air condition and
mirrors before you pull off to anywhere, so that way you aren’t
distracted by changing the music or your phone and you can see out of
all your mirrors without having to adjust them every time you stop.
Also, to help others be safe on the road be sure to have road
curtesy, make sure to let people know when you are switching or
changing lanes so no one will be alarmed when you do it.

Thank you for
taking the time to read and I hope if you got anything from this is
that you always need to be careful when you drive and also know your
worth, because your life is not worth a phone call or text message.
Your life is not worth a snapchat photo or Facebook video. Your life
is worth so much more.

Jasmine McMoore