August 30th, 2023. You would have thought it was night time from the smoke filling the car. The pressure on my nose from hitting the seat in front of me is mind numbing. I hear the words, “I can’t get out”. I have to rely on my ears because my glasses were knocked off. All I could think, no way this just happened to us. No way this could happen to us on our way home from Costco. Our dinner, which was sitting on my lap, now painted a picture throughout the car. Smoothie in my hair and on all the windows. I can’t breathe. The pizza box cut my arm. I hear my sister asking my mom if she is okay, and my mom not being able to respond because she had the air knocked out of her. Her lungs were compressed. All I can think to do is open the door and wave for help. Opening the door, I ran into rush hour traffic. I remember the first people I saw, a young couple who pulled up next to us. I remember them telling me my mom would be okay, even though there is no way they could have known. It really helped. Cars started pulling over left and right. I see my older sister get out of the passenger side and open my mom’s car door. It had started raining at this point. My brain clears enough to look at the reason for the crash. A man who admitted he didn’t wait for us to safely pass before attempting his turn because he “thought he had enough time.” The man responsible for the burn on my mom’s chest, the bruises and cuts on all of our bodies, and the intense fear we felt. His car door was smashed in from the impact of our car hitting him on the side. The relief that hit my body when I saw my mom and sister were okay is an irreplaceable feeling. They were as okay as they could have been after a 45 mph t-bone car crash. We were on Grant Road, which if you are a Tucson local know its infamous reputation for being heavily congested, especially at rush hour. I thank God now that the man was okay, with no serious injuries. Though if you asked me at the time, I couldn't care less how he was. It was his fault after all. He made a dangerous turn into oncoming traffic and could have been prevented if he could have waited two seconds for us to pass. This was my first experience being in a car accident. The feelings I had the following days were intense. It was a fear of losing my family and fear of not having any control over it. Shortly after the crash, the four of us were pulled into this office lobby nearby to get off the road; me, my sister, my mom, and the man. I almost feel bad for the glaring eyes on him, which came mostly from me. I looked out the window, which perfectly showed the scene of the accident. I couldn’t stop the tears from flowing. It was a deep pit in my chest. Only one question was in my head, “Why couldn’t he have waited?” The question of why people drive recklessly haunts so many people throughout Tucson, more so throughout America. The Tucson police department reported in 2023, that there were 5,947 car collisions. Out of these, 91 were fatal. Looking at statistics, the average age group most at risk is between 16-35. These are young adults who have their whole lives to live, which would be taken away from them in an instant. Why? The main reason for car accidents anywhere is distracted/reckless driving. In the US in 2021, distracted driving has claimed the lives of 3,308 people. My dad, working as a Sergeant in the Tucson Police Department, would see the scenes of these accidents, and would come home to tell me how important it is to be a responsible driver. He would remind my sister and I about lives being in your hands when you get behind the wheel. I had the opportunity to attend a teen drivers safety seminar (Tucson Police Department Safe Teen Accident Reduction Training/ START) earlier this year. We heard numerous stories of teenagers, some younger than me, who lost their lives to distracted or reckless driving. Though it sounds simple, putting your phone in the glovebox makes such a difference. The harsh reality is that there is no room for error as a driver. There is no room to not be fully aware because other people will be distracted. It is inevitable. It will never be fair, but you have to prepare for other people’s mistakes and try to minimize your own as best you can. Putting your phone away for the 10 minute drive, to ensure that you actually reach your destination makes that difference. I can confidently say, whatever is on the phone is not worth the life it took because it distracted the driver causing them to crash. I think driver's education is so important. I was looking at a study from 2022, which was data from a state where drivers under the age of 18 had to take a drivers safety course, compared to those over 18 who did not have to participate in a driver's safety course. Looking at data from Ohio licensing, they were able to look at licensed drivers between ages 16-24 and tracked the drivers crash outcome from a year after they got licensed for 129,897 of these drivers. The study found that those over 18 who didn’t have to take the drivers safety courses had the highest crash rate of those licensed in Ohio under age 25, and those who did take the safety course under 18 had a 14% lower crash rate in the first 12 months of being licensed. Only a few states in America require that young drivers participate in mandatory safety courses, which is scary. The “scare” factor of learning driver safety is what I found most effective, because it shows how serious car accidents are. It shocks me talking to my own friends who have never experienced a car accident, to see them texting, doing their makeup, even eating while driving. I pray they never do, but because they haven’t experienced it, they don’t know how truly scary it is to have your life be at risk. To hear your car crumble like paper, to be scared to be behind the wheel, like my mom who had to go through intense therapy to be comfortable inside a car again. We were one of the lucky ones. Yes, we had a totaled car, but no broken bones or dead bodies. My family personally knows victims of car accidents. One being our family friend, who was no older than 19 who was heading home from family dinner. She had both hands on the wheel, going the speed limit, and having the right of way. This didn’t protect her from being hit and breaking her arm. A distracted driver. My sister's best friend's cousin, who was driving home and was hit by an intoxicated driver. She now will spend the rest of her life paralyzed. My mom’s sister, who was killed in a car accident when my mom was a child, which further affected her ability to move on from this accident. So much pain, which could have been avoided if people could have basic empathy. If people could think just a little into the future, of how their actions will affect other people, I think the world would be a better place. It is so easy to think, It wouldn’t happen to me. It wouldn’t be easy to live with the knowledge of killing someone in a car collision, especially when it could have been avoided in numerous ways. It could be someone’s mother, father, best friend, cousin. Someone who deserved more than a death by reckless distraction. Driving is a privilege, not a right. It is a right that is abused too often, and too many lives are lost to it. Proper drivers education, and a mature mind is what should be required to drive, in addition to just a license.