Throughout my life, driving has been a huge and important action. This is because of my parents, who got divorced at an early age. This caused me and my brother to get driven back and forth between cities to stay with either Mom or Dad that week. A fatal car wreck due to driver ignorance could have heavily affected my and my siblings’ lives. But once I made it to middle school, my Dad stopped communicating with us overall, and I haven’t seen him since.
When my mom and stepdad, who I now see as my real dad, started teaching me how to drive, they taught me the most important lesson, don’t expect others to follow the rules of driving as you do, always be alert. They called this “Defensive driving.” Defensive driving has saved me from many wrecks, as it causes me to not only be aware of my driving but of others’ driving as well. The many instances where I have almost gotten into a wreck were saved by my intensive observations, as I knew the other person was going to be trouble just by watching them. This technique is very important to use when I’m driving home from my college which is two and a half hours away. Throughout this drive, I encounter many different drivers, some who practice proper road safety, some who do quite the opposite. I believe these other people who don’t practice proper road safety are quite selfish, as they use the roads as if they own them like they are the only people that need to get somewhere. They drive recklessly by speeding when not necessary, passing people and changing lanes with no blinkers, not checking their blindspot and almost hitting someone, texting while driving, slamming on the breaks when they get too close to someone way too late, distracted while driving, the list goes on. This is how my dad (stepdad) got into a car wreck that could’ve been fatal.
Last year, around September, my Dad had to travel to Indiana due to a death in the family. This drive is quite extensive, as Indiana is 9 and a half hours away from our home here in Arkansas. My Dad, who was going through chemo treatment for liver cancer and keeping it a secret from everybody except my mom, had to stop many times either from getting nauseous or tired because of the effects of the chemo. If anyone in Indiana knew about what he was going through, he wouldn’t have had to make this drive. This trip was going normally with his pit stops, until he made it 30 minutes from the location, where many cars in front of him had begun to break extremely hard, bringing them to a stop. Because my dad is a defensive driver, he braked in the same time frame as them but still had to swerve over into the thin shoulder next to the wall to avoid contact. The person behind him however, who drove a large truck with a large trailer, did not have the same reaction as my dad and ended up rear-ending him, going anywhere from 60-70 MPH, this very well could’ve been due to distracted driving, causing him to not be aware. A chain reaction then started of my dad's car getting propelled forward into the one in front of him and so on, until 8 different cars were involved and probably totaled. Right before the truck hit him, my dad could see it in the rearview mirror, he told us he thought he was going to die. But thankfully, because of the way my dad's car was positioned at an angle, his car didn’t get squashed, causing him to only walk away feeling sore from the impact, although the wreck still totaled his car. With my mom being the only one to know about his medical state, she was extremely panicked and livid about this incident, worried about his vulnerability. This wreck could have caused my dad an episode of severe stress, weakening his immune system and making him more susceptible to the chemo, as well as if he had gotten injured it could’ve been enhanced and fatal. As well as the fact that this wreck made our insurance rates go up, making it difficult for my parents to pay for that as well as my dad’s chemo treatment.
All of the people involved in the wreck didn’t know that their actions could cause such a risk for my dad. They didn’t know the stress it put upon my mom. They didn’t know he had a loving family at home who needed him. They didn’t know the unfortunate financial situation my parents were put in. This is why many need to practice defensive driving, for ourselves and the loved ones around us. As well as for others, because you never truly know what is going on in their lives, you don’t know how badly this wreck could affect them and their situations in life. The accident could have been completely avoided if all drivers involved were alert and aware of the environment around them. It could have been avoided if all of them, including my dad, weren’t driving too closely behind each other. Defensive driving could truly stop many of the wrecks that happen today from happening, I honestly believe before anyone gets a driver's license, they should be educated on the topic, and be taught to practice it. This could save so many lives of the people both at fault and not at fault for the wrecks.