I have had an
experience where I was in a car wreck, and I was the one driving.
The worst part was that I had two other people with me. We were at
school and I was heading to powerlifting. I had parked at the school
that day and heading to the field house. It happened to be raining
all day, and everything was wet. When the sixth hour bell rang, my
friends Dax and Ana hopped in. My truck is only a single cab. Ana
is tiny, so it wasn’t so bad.

We, stupidly,
didn’t put on our seatbelts. This ended up causing a lot of issues
that could have been avoided. We were going to be way late, so I was
trying to get out of the parking lot fast. I pressed on the gas a
little too hard. We started to fish tail and, then like a rookie
driver, I pressed on the brake. We drifted hard and hit a barbed
wire fence and cable for the light pole. It was one of those moments
that moved in slow motion. My first words were, surprisingly, not a
string of curse words. I checked on my friends first. Then I
yelled, “We gotta get out of here. The wires are sparking!” Dax
was unresponsive at first. I thought I had really hurt him, but he
was only stunned. Several people tried to help us, including our
principal. I was distraught. All I could say was “Are you guys
okay?,” and “My dad’s gonna kill me.”

When my parents
arrived, my mom was grateful I was okay and my dad (though furious),
was also glad I was okay. The ambulance came to check us out. With
no seatbelt, I had apparently hit the windshield on the inside with
my head. With all of the adrenaline going through me, I never felt
it. Dax hit his head on my rearview mirror and had a minor
concussion. Ana was fine because Dax acted as an involuntary shield
for her. When our head coach had arrived (Dax’s dad), I expected
him to blow up at me. Instead, all he said was “things like this
happen. I’m just glad you’re all okay.” To make matters
worse, I had taken out power to the whole neighborhood when I hit the
pole.

So many things
could have been done to prevent all of this from ever happening.
Wearing seatbelts could have reduced the damage to my truck and to my
friend. Not racing out of the parking lot on wet ground would have
prevented the wreck altogether. I could keep looking at the ‘what
if’s’, but all that matters is, I have learned my lesson. I
never drive recklessly and won’t let anyone in my truck without
their seatbelts. I’m always careful in the rain. I’m constantly
to be safer in this crazy world. My mom always tells me I am driving
a two-ton weapon, so treat it as such!