Your Actions Have Consequences

Accidents due to driving have increased over the years; due to more distractions and behavior that a person can have. I know that everyone knows of drinking and driving or about no using your cellphone while you drive. But I will like to tell you some sayings that we have in my family that impact us; in our decisions before and while driving. Hopefully, this can make you understand the importance of taking care of ourselves and others while driving, reducing injuries and deaths around our nation, and hopefully make you understand why rules need to be followed.

It is better to lose five minutes of your life rather than your life in five minutes. This has been a saying that my family would say very often. We used it to remind our loved ones that a reckless, responsible action can lead to something terrible that can’t be undone. An example that explains this can be road rage; cutting someone off because they were driving too slow or because you were late for a meeting and you were over-speeding; this can end a car crashed, resulting in you getting severely injured/death or causing someone else the to have these results. We say this because the scenario could have been prevented, but instead, we decide not to think clearly before we act. In “the Zebra, “an article brought to the public a study that approximately a total of 12,610 injuries and 216 deaths due to road-rage over seven years. Making it more dangerous than distracted driving. A way that fatalities and injuries can be reduced in road rage is by creating an ad that we know will impact our drivers that will make them understand what happens after everything turns red. Also, if a person was involved in an accident caused by road rage, I believe that they should have to attend mandatory meetings with a Psychologist or a group that can help them be able to control their actions before it is too late.

Temporary Fun with Permanent Consequences, this is the following saying for drinking and driving. My family understands that sometimes it is okay to go out and have fun, but we also realize that everything we do has its consequences. Alcohol in our system can make us behave differently towards certain situations; we can become more aggressive or sentimental in certain circumstances that we are in. But driving can lead to a person not reacting to a problem the way we should. For example, missing stop lights/signs, over-speeding, being distracted, or even not paying attention to your re-doing. Now let me ask you this is one night worth the possibility to put yourself and others in danger? I understand that this may sound like a broken record; trying to explain why this is wrong but let me tell you something, according to NHTSA, approximately 28 people in the US die of drinking and driving every day. This may not seem like a high number, but let me tell you what you can impact families, even your own, so the number of individuals affected by these 28 lives can be so much greater than that. In order to try to decrease deaths and injuries created by drunk-driving can be to put risk factors of consume in excess in cans or boxes containing alcohol if needed, and also make them attend meetings because people need to understand if they are old enough to drink, they are old enough to accept the consequences of their actions; which I recommend that they should be 100% absolute.

Last but not least, a final saying from my family to you: Don’t Tempt fate, that Text can wait. It seems lately that we are born with a cellphone attached to our body. We go everywhere without missing our phone, but how can we use it knowing that we are putting our lives and others in danger. Like my family saying goes that Text can wait; you do not need to respond to that Text even if it is an emergency while you are driving because you get distracted and takes your eyes off the road for a couple of seconds. I understand that this is not easy, but it is something that it needs to be done. I, myself, was involved in a car accident for texting and driving; even if I was not the pilot, it later impacted my life. After the accident, I began having anxiety when a car will be too close to ours because I would be scared to be in another crash. That was one of the worst experiences I ever had. According to CDC in the article “Distracted Driving,” in 2018, over 2,800 people were killed, and an estimated 400,000 were injured in crashes involving a distracted driver.

There are many things that I can explain that we can do to solved these accidents before they happen; maybe longer courses to get a driver’s license or more significant penalties for those who break the law. But the truth is that in the end, everyone needs to take into consideration their actions and the consequences that they can create by making the wrong decision. So please, I will like to ask everyone to be cautious while driving.