Assumptions Hurt Us All

In June of 2019, I
got into a car accident. Exactly five days after I had gone to the
secretary of state and gotten my picture taken for my license, I
turned into oncoming traffic and caused an accident. I was driving to
school on a Monday morning and had to take a left turn at an
intersection right in front of my high school. I had inched out into
the intersection preparing to make my turn when the light turned
yellow. There were two lanes of oncoming traffic, a truck in the
far-left lane. I assumed the truck was going to stop for the yellow
light, and began my turn. This was my mistake. I impacted the truck
on the driver’s side and the truck ran into a school bus in the
left turn lane of the street I was trying to turn on to. The truck
and the bus were both totaled, but everyone survived without injury.
My accident was not caused by distraction, such as texting or by poor
conditions. Instead, it was caused by an assumption. I had assumed
the oncoming vehicle was going to stop for the yellow light. Had I
not made this assumption and instead waited for the truck to pass; I
would have avoided the accident.

This illustrates
one of the most important things to remember when driving
defensively: you cannot make assumptions. You cannot assume people
will not try to merge into your lane while you are in the way, you
can not assume people see you when you are merging, and you certainly
cannot assume people will stop for yellow lights. If we all eliminate
the assumptions we make of other drivers, we can decrease accidents
and traffic deaths greatly.