The Harsh Reality of Distracted and Drunk Driving

Tiffany Zavitsky June 1, 2020 Drivers ed Initiative Scholarship Each year thousands of people die and are injured in motor vehicles, and they are taken from us way to soon with their whole lives ahead of them. As a country we need to come to together in order to educate everyone about the risks to reduce the number of deaths as a result of driving. As new students everyday are learning how to drive and getting their license we must educate them on the consequences of what can happen not to scare them but to teach them, so they learn and make it home safely at the end of the day. As a volunteer Firefighter/EMT I have responded to many motor vehicle accidents which involve entrapment, death and much more. Having joined my local fire department at such a young age I have seen things I wish upon no one else and the only way to stop it is telling people the truth and educate them so they know it can happen to them. At my high school we performed mock car crashes before prom in which I had the opportunity to a cut car open with my classmate fake injured inside to show everyone that it’s real and when you drink and drive or are distracted while driving, bad things will happen which could include your death or the death of others and you going to jail. After I had the privilege of standing in front of classmates and sharing a true story which I responded to car accident in which a female in the vehicle passed away in the back of ambulance with me (only 16 years old at the time) and a medic in the back. Being able to share this story to my classmates about the accident is the harsh truth they needed to here to prevent them from drinking and driving on prom night and any other night. Personally, whenever I get in the car and drive, the phone goes gets silenced and put in my backpack which is placed in the back seat so I can’t reach it. The radio gets corrected to the station and volume I want before I leave my driveway and there can only one friend in the car with me at a time so therefore, I will never be distracted while driving. If I ever see people drinking at a party, personally I will take their keys and no matter how much I might seem like the bad guy in the moment, I know they will always thank me the next morning when they are alive and able to go home to their parents in one piece. Sometimes the truth hurts, but that text can always wait and whenever I get in the car with my friends or family, they know I don’t mess around. By just educating two people and those two educating two more eventually we would live in a world with minimal deaths from motor vehicle accidents.