A Roundabout Way of Learning a Lesson

Experiencing other drivers’ irresponsible driving is unfortunately something I have become very familiar with. At this point, I had been driving for over a year. It was the night of the homecoming football game in my town, so the roads were quiet; everyone was either at the game or watching from home. I needed to have some time for myself, so I went for a drive. I often do this when something is on my mind— I go down country roads where it’s not busy and I can have something to focus on to keep my mind off of whatever is going on in my head. I was on my way home when the crash happened. It was 10:30, and I was the only one on the road in a well-lit area. My lights were on, windows down, and music playing, so it would be hard to miss me. I approached and entered a roundabout after making sure nobody was in it already. I started to go through when I noticed a large SUV coming down the road adjacent to the one I just exited. It was going pretty fast, and didn’t show any signs of slowing down. I thought to myself, “Okay, they’re getting pretty close to me.” I tried to speed up and avoid them, but it was too late. They didn’t yield for me and crashed full-speed into my passenger side tire. Immediately, I thought, “Okay, now they’re REALLY close to me.” I knew the accident wasn’t my fault, and the other driver reassured me of this, but no amount of consoling could calm me down. It didn’t seem fair that I had been driving for a year and stayed overly cautious to avoid any accidents on the road, but when I DID get in a crash, it was someone else’s lack of attention. The driver didn’t check to see if anyone was in the roundabout before they went through and didn’t notice me. This is something I remember being heavily emphasized in my drivers ed classes: always slow down and double check for other cars on the incoming roads. This driver was an adult who had been driving for a long time- I do not know if they had taken drivers ed or not, but I believe that if they hadn’t, this accident could have been avoided by taking it. What I learned in drivers ed helped keep me safe on the roads by teaching me to be hypervigilant while driving. Other new drivers can be safer on the roads by taking the classes they need before getting their permit.