Name: Shannon Diedrich
From: Kenosha, Wisconsin
Votes: 0
I
start to pull forward, away from the stop sign, making a left-hand
turn onto County Highway SA. I hear my dad shout “Stop,” and I
do. Next, I hear the blare of a horn followed by the sound of the
trailer grinding through the front bumper of my parents’ minivan.
I was only fifteen and had just gotten my driver’s permit the
previous month. My dad came to pick me up from behind the wheel and
told me that I could drive home. We had to make a stop on the way
home, so I was driving on roads that I had never driven on before.
But I was not worried, my dad knew where we were going and I knew
that he would direct me home safely. I pull up to the stop and look
in both directions checking for cars. I could have sworn that the
truck with the trailer had their turn signal on indicating that he
would be turning onto the street that my dad and I were sitting on,
and that is why I began to make my turn. The following moments still
haunt me. Luckily no one was injured, but I immediately began to
panic. Streams of tears flowed from my eyes as I began shouting “What
do I do? What do I do?”. My dad calmly directed me through my turn
and I pulled into the nearest driveway. It was at this point that we
realized that the truck with the trailer had fled the scene. My dad
called 911 to report the accident. While he was on the phone, so
many thoughts were flying through my head, “Will this cause me to
lose my permit?”, “Will this go on my record?”, “Now mom and
dad will have to pay for the damages I caused.”. After my dad got
of the phone, I began apologizing profusely. He told me that
everything was going to be alright and that the important thing was
that nobody was injured. I had stopped crying by the time the cops
showed up. They took our information and asked for a description of
the truck; my dad remembered the truck to be black or brown, while I
could have sworn that it was white. After showing the officer the
intersection were parts of the front bumper of the minivan still lie,
my dad drove home. For the longest time after the accident, I was
terrified of making left-hand turns and would always double or triple
check to see if any oncoming cars were turning or continuing
straight. I feel that because of the accident, I am a safer driver
and have learned to always be on the lookout for unexpected actions
of other drivers as I drive.
