Name: Hannah Tycksen
From: Herriman, Utah
Votes: 0
Turn
Down the Music by Hannah Tycksen
At
11:00 PM on a school night, six months after I got my license, I woke
up to my dad shouting my name. I ran upstairs to find both him and
my older brother, with whom I share I car. He explained to me that
the police had just knocked on the door and informed him that the
truck in the driveway had been involved in a hit and run earlier that
day, and he wanted to know which one of us had done it. My brother
and I were both confused as I had been at school and he at work all
day. My dad gave details that it had happened in Sandy and that the
car that was hit was a Honda minivan. I remembered that I had had a
close encounter with a Honda van in Sandy the previous week, but had
made it out just fine without damage to either car. I was wrong.
After
shopping at the mall, just a few Saturdays before Christmas, I went
out to my truck to leave and realized that I would need to back out
to get the car home to my brother, who needed it to get to work. The
mall parking lot was flooded with a constant stream of traffic. I
could see no way to be able to back out and get the car home in time.
Being a new, inexperienced, and irresponsible driver, I decided to
pull forward at an angle, seeing a wide space between the two cars
parked in front of me. With my music playing at the highest volume,
I could not hear the bed of my truck loudly scratch the minivan to my
left. I had no idea that I had bashed in their passenger door and
pulled off their front bumper. I drove away thinking I had made it,
oblivious to the onlookers in the parking lot who were chasing me
with cameras, trying to get me to stop.
This incident
resulted in me losing $2,000 in repairs, but gaining experience and
the knowledge of what a simple, irresponsible mistake while driving
can do. It made me take turning off distractions and paying full
attention to my surroundings, things I was taught in Drivers Ed,
seriously. Training drivers completely is extremely important to
their safety and the safety of everyone on the road. Drivers need to
know how to react in different driving situations and to know the
laws to reduce driving deaths. Reminders, such as highway signs and
internet videos, can help catch attention and make people take
driving seriously. A responsible driver should be cautious and
alert, actively obeying traffic laws and reminding other drivers. It
should not require being involved in an accident like mine to take
these laws seriously. It is important for people to be educated on
just how deadly irresponsible driving can be and how many deaths it
causes annually so they can contribute to making the roads safer for
everyone.
