A Second of Distraction for a Lifetime of Guilt

The car halted at last. In the middle of the intersection, we sat in a destroyed, hissing Jeep Compass that was leaking oil. Dog whistles and chimes rang in my head as steam leaked from every nook and cranny of the car. My heart raced as I moved my stiffened muscles and peeled the airbags off my skin. When I swung open the door, I was greeted by a man who ran up to the car and began to speak to me; I was so dazed and confused that it sounded like a foreign language. I tried to understand what he was saying as he gestured for me to follow him. Once I read “Car is leaking oil” from his lips, I understood enough to know to get away from the car. My friend followed, despite how dazed and confused he also was. The dog whistles began to fade from my ears and the sound of sirens quickly replaced them as EMS raced to the scene of the 3-way accident.

At the age of 15, the road to earning a driver’s license can seem quite excessive. 24 hours in a classroom, 6 hours of instructed drives, and an official exam on top of everything else going on in my life came as an annoyance to me. That was before my first instructed drive where I realized the true power of an automobile. As I turned onto the main road, I hit the gas with no more than an ounce of effort, and in seconds I was up to 40 miles per hour. As I sped past lights and signs, I noticed the importance of being educated in operating these machines. I realized that with operating a vehicle with so much power, one must do so with extreme caution and responsibility. The best way to limit the mishandling of automobiles, which leads to death-inducing accidents, is to maximize the number of educated drivers occupying the roads; This can be done through group discussions, driving with teachers, and knowing all the laws. Driver’s education provides an opportunity to improve for the better of the entire driving community, one person at a time. After my first drive and feeling the true power of being behind the wheel, I limited my complaints as I earned my license.

EMS arrived on the scene before I came fully back to my senses. All I could do was stare at the car and continue to rub my sore tricep. My friend began to tear up as he couldn’t help but realize that the accident was his own doing. The kind man that pulled us to the shoulder of the busy road did his best to explain to him that he was at fault; He informed my buddy that he ran the red light and T-boned one car and as he spun, he hit yet another car. By now he was in tears, barely able to ask me if I was okay. I told him that I was, and I only had a hefty burn on my tricep from the left side airbag. He sighed with some minor relief and hugged me; I felt his tears dribble onto my shoulder. By now police and firemen had the street blocked off. He and I took a moment to reconvene before walking out to talk with the officers now standing in the intersection.

It takes a good Samaritan to make other Samaritans better. The man who ran to the Jeep to ensure that my friend and I out of the car is an example of the ideal person we need on our roads. I say this because drivers like him, who are so willing to help others, make others better within the driving community. As drivers, we need to hold one another accountable for following the laws by following them ourselves. When multiple drivers follow a speed limit, stop at every stop sign, and show patience behind the wheel, others feel obligated to do the same thing. Drivers can make those around them better by showing integrity and responsibility behind the wheel. There are only so many officers on Earth to keep us in check, the rest is on us!

The officer who greeted us was very polite and calm, which my friend and I greatly appreciated. The first thing he assured us was that everything and more importantly, everyone involved in the accident was alive and well. I could see some anxiety escape both my friend and me as we discovered this. He proceeded to take both of our statements and assured us that everything would be okay. As we walked away, tears swelled from my friend’s eyes. “If I had asked you to fix the music rather than try to myself, none of this would have even happened”. My father took us home shortly after EMS got everything, they needed from us, and my buddy couldn’t speak much at all. The main sentence I recall was the first he said to my father before hugging him: “I am sorry for putting your son in that kind of danger”.

Each time somebody gets into a car, they need to prepare the same way, no matter the distance being traveled. Distracted driving can be significantly reduced by simply running through a checklist before shifting the car out of the park. One should first prioritize comfort in their seating preferences, music, mirrors, and car temperatures; these things should be set up and prepared for the ride prior to starting. Next is to send important texts prior to traveling; It only takes a moment to do so and helps avoid the temptation of checking a phone mid-trip. If you have a passenger in the front seat, it makes this step even easier. My last tip is to always follow all the laws, no matter the situation; Nothing is worth jeopardizing another’s well-being or even life. If this checklist could be obeyed by every driver, I believe distracted driving would be significantly reduced and the roads would be a much safer place.

To this day I find myself thinking about that accident; It was one of the scariest moments of my life to date. Thinking back to the car wreckage, I find it a miracle that nobody was physically harmed in any way other than some bruises, and my friend cannot either. Every so often we find ourselves talking about the nightmare like it was yesterday. “I am forever thankful that nobody got seriously hurt”, he says, “because if somebody had I don’t know if I could have ever forgiven myself”. Our conversations continue to remind me how important it is to avoid distracted driving at all costs. Even one second of my distraction behind the wheel could cost others their lives and dreams.