It Only Takes a Second

All it takes is one second, maybe a glance down at your phone, to completely change the outcome of a person’s drive home. It does not matter if it’s a drive they have successfully completed thousands of times before. For all they know, today is the day that marks their first car crash. Whether you have been in a crash first hand, or know of someone who has been in a crash: nine times out of ten, the accident could have been prevented if the person at fault had simply taken a piece of advice, given to them in a crowded drivers-ed classroom, to heart, rather than shoving it in the most obscure parts of their minds. Because that piece of advice could have had the potential to save a life. Someone’s son or daughter, someone’s mother or father, someone’s best friend; they were all putting their trust in the education of each driver on the road, but unfortunately drivers ed does not always prevail.

Sadly, I know this all too well. In a carpool on the way to school our car was cut off by another car making a left turn, and we collided head on. I was fast asleep in the back, so you can imagine the state of shock I was in being woken up by my head slamming into the back of the driver’s seat. While the rest of the passengers in the car, my two friends and their mother, were left with concussions and whip-lash, I was left with four facial fractures and a compressed orbital floor. Did I mention that this was on the fourth day back to school following winter break? I know, a great way to start off the New Year. I would love to be able to say that this accident was no one’s fault, but in fact it was the product of a driver not acknowledging the severity of making that ill-fated left turn, a decision that left others paying for its consequences. Following the incident I was nervous and anxious being in the car again. Each swerve of the car made me jump, and every jolt created a dark feeling in my chest. Nonetheless, I was determined to begin driving(with my permit) again, as to get as many hours as I could before my license day. I refused to allow fear to take over, because driving is only as unsafe as drivers make it; so I decided to make sure to maximize my amount of safety by doing my part of practicing. I can only control what happens behind my own wheel by applying the knowledge I learned during those thirty long hours in a drivers-ed classroom. For each hour spent in that classroom, the likelihood of each student making a future mistake on the road goes down exponentially. Increased driving knowledge means a decrease of death, and I think all drivers need to be consistently reminded of that. If not for themselves, then for others and their families.