Name: Jordan Sanders
From: Daytona Beach, Florida
Votes: 0
Today is going to be
exciting and wonderful. I get to leave school early to go see my
cousin graduate in a town just a few hours away. Unfortunately, my
mom got held up a little later than she wanted, but it is alright
because we still have plenty of time to make it to his graduation and
grab some dinner before hand. Finally, we are able to head out the
door and get into the car, commenting on how nice of a day it is. As
my mom is driving, we are having a conversation about why she got
held up and how my day at school was. Just like it always is when you
are running behind, we hit quite a few red lights on the way to the
interstate entrance just a few to several minutes away from my
school. I am halfway through my response to my mom when, suddenly,
there is a huge jolt to the car that seems to last several minutes.
The car in front of us that just started rolling from being stopped
at the red light seems to be getting closer and closer, then
everything just stops. The world is in slow motion. Neither my mom
nor I seem to fully comprehend what is happening. A few seconds pass,
then the panic sets in. We were just going to go to my cousin’s
graduation and have fun, right? Wrong. We were apparently going to be
rear-ended by a fully-loaded dump truck, and barely make it to the
graduation at all.
If all drivers
understood how to tell if a car is stopped or how much room they need
to be able to stop, then maybe I never would have been hit. Maybe I
would never had to experience the true pain of severe whiplash. Maybe
my world would not have stopped for a while. However, this is not the
only reason car accidents happen. People drive when they are high,
drunk, or extremely tired. All of which makes them extremely
dangerous. Although many do not think so, people checking their phone
while driving is just as dangerous as drunk driving. You have to keep
your eyes on the road in order to prevent yourself from hitting
something. However, not all driving accidents are caused by drivers
themselves. For example, passengers distract drivers, and pedestrians
walk right in front of cars. If passengers help the drivers watch out
for animals that may dash out in front of the car at any moment, then
that would help to lower accident rates as well. Also, if all
pedestrians looked both ways and crossed at crosswalks, less people
would get hurt. I will not drive distractedly, help drivers out when
I can, and encourage others to do the same
