Protect Your Life, Don’t Wait

We take driving for granted. We assume that we will make it to work, school, the grocery store, etc. We assume that we will make it back home just like the day before. But it only takes a second…and everything is over. We don’t realize how dangerous driving can be until something happens in our lives that gives us no way to go back in time.

Three weeks after I got my first car, I was driving home from soccer practice. I had one more street to cross until I would enter my neighborhood and finally be home. I decided to check my phone and change the song while I sat at the stop sign. Then, I assumed everything was still clear, and pulled out, crossing the 4-lane street. I suddenly looked left and saw a white truck headed straight for me. In panic, I tried to press the gas, but it was too late. My car spun, my airbags exploded, my car began making beeping noises instead of playing music, and I sat panicking in my car, full of regret. I wished I hadn’t checked my phone. I wished I would’ve looked both ways again before pulling out. I wished a lot of things, but there was no going back. I was lucky that I even got out alive, making me realize how dangerous a car can be. This moment was what it took to make me learn. I knew that texting and driving was dangerous. I knew to check left and right before crossing a street. I knew it all. But it had been routine to cross the street and get back home safely. It was a routine to get on my phone and change the song while driving. Even though I knew it was all dangerous, it hadn’t affected me yet, so it didn’t matter. But now it did. And it only took one second.

Ever since my accident and many other accidents that my friends have been involved in, I take it very seriously. We don’t have 9 lives, we have one. So we need to start acting like it. It’s not just about ourself, it’s about everyone around us, too. When we drive, we need to be educated enough to know what driving a car can cause. It is great, it gets us to work and school and practice. It allows us to go hang out with friends over the weekend. But it can also end lives or cause extremely severe injuries. If we are more educated in driving, we could prevent a lot of deaths that occur behind the wheel. This may mean knowing the consequences that can occur from driving under the influence. It might seem like its “only a mile,” but choosing not to drive at all while drunk could save your own and others’ lives. Or this could mean learning the power of safety features including seatbelts to save lives in case of an accident. All of the driving knowledge we can learn to reduce the number of traffic deaths can be used. We can do different things to ensure the most safety, including wearing seatbelts, not speeding, not running red lights when we are in a rush, not looking at our phones because the “text can’t wait,” etc. None of these things are worth a life. Make sure everyone in your car including yourself has a seatbelt on. Make sure you don’t speed and stay within the speed limit range. Make sure that even if you are in a rush, you stop at the red light. Make sure you put the phone down and focus on the road. Because I guarantee you, that text isn’t worth your life. That red light isn’t worth your life. Not only is it not worth your life, it isn’t worth someone else’s life either, so we need to have more caution and respect when we drive as it can be a deadly vehicle.

For me personally, there are many things I can do to be a better and safer driver on the road. This could include making sure everyone in my car has a seatbelt on when I am driving. Or this could mean putting my phone down and asking the passenger to send a text for me if it is that urgent. Or this could mean slowing down at yellow lights rather than speeding past them just because it is “not red yet.” There are many things I myself can do to be a better driver, and I can’t control how someone else chooses to drive. So, the most I can do for myself is to protect myself and my passengers in case something were to happen.

Whatever it may be, there are things that we all can do to reduce the number of traffic deaths, including wearing seat belts, driving the speed limit, getting off of our phones, learning what signs mean what, learning the different buttons in our cars in case we need to use windshield wipers, emergency signals, blinkers, etc, and so much more. We need to take this step now. We don’t need to keep waiting, pushing it away saying it “will never happen to me” because it could happen to you today. Or it could happen to your loved one. Whoever it happens to, there is no going back. So, we need to have more caution when we are behind the wheel, and it all starts with the decisions we make.