What Just Happened?

What Just Happened?

My teeth were vibrating as my teammates sang along to the pounding radio while my friend drove us to our soccer game in her minivan. I had been relegated to the third row and as the safe friend of the group, I anxiously stared out the window as we entered a confusing road that looked to be a roundabout. I was sitting in the middle seat and was looking down at my phone when I felt the jarring impact. The car made a sharp skkkkkr as the right side scraped along something. I looked out the window again and realized that we were in the right lane, even though we had been in the left lane just a second ago. My friends laughed while the driver sighed and said that she was sorry, but the car could take it. I looked around in amazement: why wasn’t anyone saying anything about the car behind us that we had merged into? After a minute of discussion, I realized that everyone thought we had hit a post or unknown object. I told the driver that we needed to pull over and we got out and talked to the other driver about the accident. Although there was not a lot of damage to either car, this was still a dangerous situation that should never have occurred. My friends assumed that as long as you’re not driving while intoxicated, there is a low probability of getting into an accident. This is false, and we were the perfect example of what not to do. The music was blaring loud hip hop, the passengers were screaming lyrics and chattering loudly, and the person in the passenger seat was not giving directions when asked. We could not see how dangerous this was until we were standing outside of the car, looking at it’s dented exterior, and this could have been prevented.

After this, I encouraged my friends to take separate cars if there were too many people going somewhere in one vehicle so that the driver doesn’t get overwhelmed by noise. I also made it a rule to only play relaxing music quietly so that I can concentrate. Sometimes I get glares, but then I tell them about the accident and they realize that the danger is not worth it. Drivers ed is integral to reducing the number of deaths as a result of driving because it teaches burgeoning drivers how to drive safely, while presenting statistics that show how dangerous certain activities are while driving. Although this is effective already, I believe schools should teach safe driving skills because everyone will either be a driver or a passenger at some point in their lives, and both contribute to how safe a driving experience will be, so this could be a life-saving addition that is presented at assemblies in high school.