My Experience

My Experience

My classmates would always talk about being in a car accident, whether it was when they were small kids or when they were just learning to drive at the age 16,and if it was a major or minor accident. Because I had never been in one until recently , I could never relate to them. My first car accident occurred when I was 17 years old.

My family and I had been going to Burger King for diner every Wednesday for almost two months because who doesn’t love Whopper and bacon cheeseburgers? It’s not far from where I live. It takes us around ten minutes to go and return home. It had become a habit for us to take five minutes to get to Burger King and another five minutes to get home. We used to go to the drive-thru every Wednesday at 7 p.m. to get our dinner, but something unexpected happened on May 26.

It was any other Wednesday for us. Around 6 p.m. ,my father had arrived from work , and my mother was watching me and my younger bother play UNO. Our parents told us that we were leaving to buy Burger King once we completed our game of UNO. Everybody was getting ready as we got into the car. My father was driving , my mother was in the passenger seat , and me and my brother were in the rear. My brother was in the back seat of my mom’s and I was in the rear seat of my dad’s. My dad started driving after all of us were ready and just like that we left our house. I felt odd right after we left. As though I had a forewarning that something was about to happen. I wasn’t sure whether it would be a good or bad thing. My father was driving down a four-way street. We were on the major thoroughfare with no stop signs. However, there are stop signs if you get onto the thoroughfare , but you must continually glance left to right due to traffic.

We had only be three minutes into our drive when we see a gray mustang car. The driver ignored a stop sign and was heading towards our car. My mom yelled at my dad “Hit the breaks!!”. My dad tried to hit the breaks but it was already too late. The gray mustang car had crashed into the left side of our car. What had just transpired surprised me. How could it not? I noticed people coming out of their houses approaching us and asking if we were okay. “Is everybody okay?” my dad asks and thankfully we were not injured. We stepped out of our car, and my dad urged my mother to dial 911. While she did that , my dad went to look at the car that had hit us and spoke to the driver. I recall standing on the sidewalk with my brother, watching my father discuss with the other individual. Because I was far away from them I couldn’t hear them discussing , but my dad looked upset. I mean, how could he not be upset? The driver was a teenager my age , who had his girlfriend and a toddler in his car. They were not injured neither. I noticed the person call someone after my dad spoke to them, and his father arrived approximately 3 minutes afterwards. “Who was driving the other car?” his furious tone dad asked. “ I was and I rather talk when there’s a police officer is present” my dad said.

Finally, after what felt forever a police officer arrived. The officer got out the police car and immediately went to look at the car accident scene. He went to question the driver of the grey mustang car, but the drivers father proceeded to talk for his son’s behalf. Knowing his son was in fault , his determined father kept blaming his father. The officer looked annoyed and kindly asked the father to stop talking and asked the driver the questions again. After he was done questioning them the officer approached us. He was well aware that the car accident was not other fault and just asked us basic ,common information like name, date of birth and where we were seated in the car. My dad explained it was our first car crash and asked the officer for some advice. He explained how we should handle the situation with our insurance company and thanked us for being understanding and patient. The officer let us go instead of the other family. Me and my family got into our car that didn’t seem to be functioning well ,but we left like that anyway.

During the three minutes that took us to get home anything. We were just so overwhelmed by what occurred. When we came home , my mother started crying and I wanted to cry too, but I didn’t. I couldn’t. Sometimes being the oldest child, you may have to look after your family as well as being strong for them and at that time they needed me. I went to my mother’s side to comfort her. My father informed my extended family about the incident. Some of them showed up to show their support for us and left later on. It was already late at night and me, my brother, and my parents just sat at our table. It was silent. No word. We just stared at each other and that was okay. Sometimes less is more and that night we said more with our eyes.

Later , we said our goodnights and I went to bed. Before I went to sleep I started to think about all the possibilities that could have happened and I’m thankful those possibilities didn’t occurred. May 26 is a day that will forever be in my mind. In both good and negatives ways, that day has made me and my parents really think about the decisions we make when we drive, but also traumatized me.

Getting passed a incident isn’t always easy, but it teaches us lessons. These lessons makes us be a better person and I think that’s all that matters.