The Value of Life

The Value of Life

I was really little. We had just gotten a new car that week and we were driving home, my brother, mom, dad, myself, and my grandfather. My dad was driving, my grandfather was in the front seat, and my mom was between my brother and I in our car seats, sitting in the backseat of the car. And then somehow it happened. The car was suddenly being dragged by a semi-truck. The semi-truck had swerved over into our lane and or brand new Suburban had somehow gotten caught on the underside of the semi. My mom says it was like everything was in slow motion. I was on the side of the car that was caught on the semi, so my mom unbuckled from her seat and wedged herself in between my car seat and the window, protecting me while my grandfather covered my brother with his body, shielding him. My dad honked the horn continuously, trying desperately to get the truck driver to stop his vehicle. But he wasn’t stopping. He wasn’t listening. Other cars joined into the chorus of screaming horns, trying to make the truck driver stop; he was distracted.

But he wasn’t sleeping at the wheel after long hours of driving. He didn’t just genuinely not see the car because it was in his blind spot. He was watching a movie. He made the conscious decision to risk the lives of everybody around him by driving distracted. He could have killed my entire family because he wasn’t paying attention that day, my parents, grandfather, and brother. We could have all died. He dragged our car over a mile before something finally caught his attention and made him stop his speeding semi-truck. Thankfully, none of us were hurt that day, but everyone in my family is still wary when we drive by a semi-truck, and we all made a conscious decision to never risk another person’s life by driving distracted.

If you ask me what steps can be taken to reduce the number of deaths related to driving and to become a safe driver, I would say that you must always pay attention, encourage others to not drive distracted, and to take drivers education.

My story is just one of millions that occur year after year, and thankfully it had a happy ending because my family was ok, but that’s not always the case. Don’t drive distracted, and don’t let other people you care about be a distracted driver either. You may think that nothing could ever happen, that its only a few seconds that your eyes would be off the road and it doesn’t matter, but it does. Those few seconds could be the difference between life and death for you and someone else. People die from car accidents every day; children die from car accidents every day. People are permanently paralyzed and never walk again.

The people who cause accidents don’t usually think something bad is going to happen. They are everyday people, just like those of you reading this essay. If you drive distracted you could cause an accident, its an undeniable truth. No one plans to kill or injure the dad of a family of four by replying to text, or the mom of twins by accidentally swerving into her car on a two lane highway while turning back to talk with someone in the backseat. However, these tragedies occur every day, and life is way too precious and is worth way too much to be carelessly put into danger because of distracted driving.

Driver education is also extremely important in the prevention of injuries and deaths due to car accidents. Though we know from our parents to stop at a stop sign, and not to run a red light there is so much more to driving that new drivers need to be taught. I know when I first started my own driver’s education, I was appalled at how clueless I was to the official rules of the road. I had no idea who went first at a four-way stop, especially if me and another car arrived at the same time. I was terrified to try and get onto the highway from an entrance ramp, watching the speeding cars coming straight at me and knowing if I timed it wrong I could hit someone, also knowing if I stopped at the last minute the car behind me could hit me. The guidance that driver’s education provides, both the written material and the applied practice that you get with your instructor or parents is essential to making safe drivers and saving lives.

So please, value your life and the lives of those around you on the road. Obtain the proper education to drive safely, ask your instructor about the things you aren’t sure about, pull over if you can’t see while you’re driving in the rain. Overall, simply value human life above the instant gratification that you get from reading or responding to a text or participating in any other activity that could compromise your own life or the lives of those around you.