Name: Afton Smart
From: Peoria, AZ
Votes: 0
Going down the
neighborhood road at no more than twenty-one miles per hour, she
looked down for hardly anytime to ‘like’ a picture of a dog on
Instagram and when she looked back up it was to see her friend
rolling down the hood of her car. The party was normal and low key,
just a friday night get together for friends who were moving two
states away. Together we had made brownies and were on the couch
watching funny videos and laughing about all the good times we had
all had together throughout the years. After an hour of talking to
the people at the party and saying goodbye to friends moving away,
two friends decided to go and grab some burgers for dinner. The one
went to grab the car that was parked a few streets down. As she was
driving to pick up her friend in front of the house she looked down
for hardly anytime to ‘like’ a picture of a dog on Instagram and
when she looked back up it was to see her friend rolling down the
hood of her car. She put her phone down immediately but by then it
was too late, she had already ran over her friend and trapped her
underneath the car. I ran out to see this seen of blood and
screaming, along with twenty other kids. We stood helpless there
just waiting for the two ambulances, three cop cars, and one
firetruck show up to see if our friend was still alive. As medical
personnel and cops arrived, we had to watch them jack the car up and
pulled the girl out from underneath. You could see the trail of
blood follow her body and the girl who hit her went into shock and
cried uncontrollably. The injured girl turned extremely pale and
unresponsive to her name and any other questions that they asked her.
The pain and shock of the events had been too much for her and she
started to slip out of conscience. We had no idea if she would be
okay as they rushed her in a neck brace, flat on a stretcher to the
hospital. Later we learned that she had one collapsed lung, multiple
ribs broken, her tibia was shattered and had broken skin, along with
a concussion and a cleanly snapped collarbone. All of this pain,
trauma, and emotional damage could have never existed if the girl
driving would’ve waited to push that meaningless ‘like’ button.
Social media can be a great platform for entrepreneurs, staying in
touch with far away family, and sharing inspiring quotes but social
media should be in a responsible way and not be looked at when behind
the wheel.
The
topic of not texting and driving is ingrained in this generation’s
mind. There are countless slogans, posters, videos, etc and we
constantly talk about not texting and driving. But rarely do we talk
about not going on social media and driving. I didn’t really
understand how serious the consequences of going on Instagram and
driving could be until that night, where we almost lost a friend to
it.
