In the Blink of an Eye

In the Blink of
an Eye

The future
wields countless possibilities that no one would ever expect to go
through. Car accidents are a part of those possibilities. They leave
you with only seconds to process and react, hopefully preventing any
further damage from happening to you or anyone else that may be
around you; every second counts. Although car accidents are always
discussed with people, mainly teens and new drivers, there is nothing
that can prepare anyone for what a car crash entails.

As you step into
a car, you are taking the unknown risk of getting into an accident,
and there is no telling when and where it may happen. You are putting
your life in the hands of both yourself and others around you, when
you get in any vehicle, and how fast everything can change is
unnatural. One moment you are cruising along the highway in the back
seat of your car, looking at the beautiful full blue sky, painted
with delicate white clouds, while listening to the radio, thinking to
yourself… what could ruin such a stunning view? Then, in a split
second, you hear the locking of your seat belt as you feel yourself
thrown forward and the glass of the back window begin to crack and
shatter. Before you realize it, you are only one in a chain of a few
cars that were apart of this accident, and everything around you
comes to a screeching halt. After what seemed like a lifetime of
dodging cars and trying to prevent any further damage, the car is
finally pulled over and you begin to come back to your senses as the
adrenaline fades and your fear begins to calm. Then you realize that
your brothers, ages 3 and 2 are still in car seats, not 2 feet from
where the entire back window had just bust open. You nervously touch
the back the back of their heads and their car seats, hoping that you
don’t find any glass shards or blood from any cuts. Thankfully,
nothing was there, however, they were only children that had been
jolted back and forth like a ragdoll, unsure of what was happening,
so they began to cry and yell for their parents. As the medics
arrived, we were all checked out, and luckily my brothers and I were
fine, but our parents not so much. We had all fallen victim to
reckless driving while on the phone.

My brothers and
I were picked up by our grandparents, clueless as to why our mom and
dad were leaving in a loud and bright truck. A day or so passes, and
we finally visited our parents in the hospital and found out they
would be okay, but that they had to recover from back injuries. It
was all so scary and chaotic, and for a while I was unsure what to
think or do. But years later I would learn it was also a learning
experience. I was finally old enough to understand that accidents
happen, and what may cause them could be avoided. From then on, I
promised to always be attentive and disregard distractions so that I
would never put anyone, especially a family, in such an awful
situation. Driving safely is one of the most important things you
will do on a day to day basis, because any amount of reckless
driving can change and ruin lives in the blink of an eye.