Death by distraction

Distracted driving is a big problem that we have not just in America, but worldwide. A driver can become distracted by many different things, and it depends on who the driver is. For example, music could distract someone, but the weather doesn’t affect them at all. For another person, music couldn’t bother them, but if it’s too sunny out, it's all they can focus on. I myself have been involved in several accidents and close calls due to other people being distracted drivers. 
My first experience with this was about five years ago. I was going to Valley Fair in Minnesota with my family in August 2021. We are from South Dakota, so we had quite a drive in front of us. Our drive was going normally so far until we were in Eden Prairie, which is a suburb of Minneapolis. It was around five o'clock, so it was pretty busy. My stepdad was driving, my mom was in the passenger seat, and my brother and I were in the back seat. Everything was fine until the car in front of us suddenly slammed on its brakes. My stepdad couldn’t get stopped in time and we crashed into the car in front of us. Thankfully, no one was hurt in either car, but both cars had to be totaled. We found out later that the reason why the car in front of us stopped was that another car wasn’t paying attention, pulled out in front of them, and they tried to stop their car so as not to hit them. If that car was paying attention and didn’t pull out in front of the car in front of us, both cars wouldn’t have been totaled, and our trip would have been more peaceful and less traumatic. 
Another experience I had with a distracted driver was about two years ago. I was driving on a back road on my way home from school. I noticed the car behind me kinda swerving between lanes. I just chose to ignore them, even though I should’ve gotten off the road then. As I was approaching a stop sign, there was a semi-truck waiting. I stopped behind it and waited like normal. All of a sudden, I saw in my rearview mirror the car behind me coming at me full speed without slowing down to stop, and I saw the guy driving on his phone. Before I could even react to what was happening, he slammed into me, and my car went flying forward. Thankfully, the semi-truck in front of me had just moved, or else I would’ve crashed into him. When I pulled off to the side of the road, I was very shaken. I was also very mad at the guy driving the other car because if he hadn’t been on his phone, my car wouldn’t have been damaged. He also acted like he did nothing wrong and it was just a silly little mistake, but it could’ve been much more than that. If that semi-truck hadn't moved in time, I would've crashed into the back of it, and who knows what would've happened. This moment really changed my experience with distracted driving. 
Another time was when I was with my brother. He was actually driving my car. We were trying to leave our church parking lot. It was a very crowded day, and there were a lot of cars. He was backing up, and he was on his phone, and I had yelled at him earlier to get off his phone, but he didn’t listen. He wasn’t paying full attention to our surroundings, and he backed my car into a basketball pole. This, of course, made me very mad because, first of all, it was my car that he damaged, and I had yelled at him earlier to get off his phone, but he didn't listen, and now my car was damaged again. This could have been very avoidable if he would’ve listened to me and stayed off of his phone. And yes, he is never allowed to drive my car again. 
The final experience that I’m going to talk about is a very serious one. This happened to my uncle when he was driving home on the highway at night. There was a car in front of him, and they were going very fast, and he was kind of confused as to why they were going so fast. All of a sudden, a deer jumped out in front of the car from the field by the road. The car tried to stop in time, but since they were going so fast, they slid across the road and crashed into a truck coming from the oncoming traffic. My uncle stopped his car and got out to see if everyone was okay. There were two boys in the truck, and they ended up okay with some minor injuries. But then my uncle went to check on the lady in the other car; she was already dead in her car, and she had no head on her. Hearing this story always gives me chills. The police later ruled out that she was talking on her phone and wasn’t paying attention to the speed limit or the road in front of her. 
In conclusion, I think that distracted driving is a very serious thing that people need to take seriously. I think a big problem is using your phone while driving. I hope people read my paper and choose not to use their phones while driving and to pay attention to others on the road. And if you see something suspicious or wrong, do not hesitate to report it and get off the road. Hopefully, distracted driving casualties will be fewer in the future.