Name: Frances Bueno
From: Hialeah, Florida
Votes: 0
Driving
might seem like an easy task but in reality we are operating a
machine. Deaths from car accidents are at 34,000 each year, far more
common than it should be especially when it comes to texting and
driving. You might have juicy gossip about a girl in your class or a
message from your significant other waiting but picking up the phone
and texting back could lead to a life ending collision. If you text
back while driving, this leads to one of your senses being off the
road. In a simple three seconds of you looking at your phone, BAM, a
crash to another vehicle faster than the end of this sentence. This
machine that weighs tons slams into a pedestrian or another car.
Imagine
what might happen if it was your last text message out to the world,
a simple “lol yeah.” As you type the “h” in your response,
your head jerks towards the steering wheel, the hood pops up from the
collision, and the glass throws shards your direction. As this moment
pauses, your phone flying into the air, your breath stuck in a gasp,
your eyes franticly trying to make sense of what’s happening.
You’re panicking. That would be your last sentence to the world,
your last breath, your last emotion. Then everything ends… for you.
Your family gets the news and they fall to their knees sobbing. Your
mother can’t stop screaming to the heavens. How is she going to
tell the family? What’s left of you is your phone with a cracked
screen and the conversation that ended you. That person that you
texted back blames themselves for your demise and never forgives
themselves. At your funeral, you’ve never seen your mother so thin
for she hasn’t been able to bring herself to eat. She welcomes
everyone with teary eyes. The funeral home brings in a sea of
familiar faces wearing black attire. Everyone tells stories about how
much you meant to them and grief fills the funeral home. It’s a
closed casket because the disfiguration of your face was too much to
reconstruct into your old self. Left ingrained in everyone’s mind is
the last message you sent, “lol yeah.”
What
if it wasn’t you that died? What if you killed someone else in a
car crash, what will you do then? You’ll have to go on knowing that
you killed an innocent person. You would be incarcerated for killing
a human being. You would have handcuffs that irritate your wrists
because they are a little too tight. You have to face the judge on
your hearing day. Not only will the judge be there but the family of
the person that are glaring at you with tears rolling down their
face. The jury of people judging you and thinking of you as a
criminal. You didn’t mean to kill that person but there you are in
an orange jump suit waiting for your sentence.
This
all doesn’t have to happen, you can change the outcome. Putting your
phone on “do not disturb” as you make it from point A to
point B or simply putting your phone on silence. Paying attention to
the road could save your life and save the grief of others. Next time
that phone chimes might be your last time you hear it. No life is
worth a sentence, put down your phone.
