All Because of a Pair of Shoes

All Because of a Pair of Shoes

It was the Friday of Labor Day weekend, a day with amazing blue skies and the promise of relaxation casting away the stress from starting my second year of college. I tend not to use my air conditioners when driving, a small effort to save gas, leaving the cool breeze from the open windows the only relief from the summer heat. Low music sang from my speakers as I stopped at the second of many intersections from my then-daily 45-minute commute from school to home.

It happened so fast I almost refused to believe it. One second I had a taste of idyllic paradise, the next my car was shoved into the Kia in front of me, metal sandwiched between metal. I no longer felt the September heat, the ice-cold chill of adrenaline squeezing my heart in a thrumming rhythm. I was lucky; beyond my totaled car and bruised knee, no one was hurt. Nothing except the pride of the person who hit me.

I later found out, after struggling with the insurance company for over a month, the reason why my car was struck. It was not a teenager texting, or a mother with screaming toddlers in the back, or someone on a phone call: it was because a man as old as my grandfather decided he needed to fiddle and fuss with his new pair of shoes.

With dawning horror, I realized that could have just as easily been me.

We all mess with things we should never think of when we drive. We check our phones, we shuffle receipts, we play with the radio volume or search for a better song. It was lucky that no one got hurt, but the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports 2,871 people died from distracted driving in 2018, a number that fails to account for unreported or misreported incidents. That over 3,000 people died because they failed to watch the road, that something took their attention away from piloting a metal coffin faster than people can run, is unacceptable. That one person died is unacceptable.

It is easy to say that distracted driving can lead to accidents, that driving itself is dangerous on the best of days. It takes a story, it takes testimony and experience to learn that lesson, not just to know it. The impact and responsibility driving has needs to be demonstrated— not just in numbers and statistics, but how it affects people each and every day.

I know I have a lot to work on, considering I still catch myself trying to look at text messages or trying to find the right music to jam to on car rides. But I also put annoyingly long passwords on my devices, put on personalized playlists, and put purchases in my trunk. My new shoes will still be there when I get home, and with some luck and willpower, so will I.

Source: https://www.nhtsa.gov/risky-driving/distracted-driving