Christion Files 29 August 2021 The Tragic Tales of Driving This year has been interesting and even tragic. I started the summer working all the time to pay for my first car. Day in and day out I sacrificed my health and time to save up to pay for my car. I even stopped running club track for a little while. Due to COVID my summer was unusually long, giving me time to search for a good deal on a car and by mid-summer, I had saved enough money to buy my very first car. A pre-owned black 2012 Nissan Altima with only 170,000 miles on it. It was perfect and in great shape. I had bought it just in time to attend a black lives matter gathering with my two cousins and sister. On the day of the gathering, I had to get my haircut, go home, get my cousin and sister and then head to the meeting. Everything was going great, everyone looked nice in their suits and dresses and we were all happy. Unfortunately, the day didn't end like that. We were a block away from our destination until we reached our final stop sign and proceeded through the intersection and halfway through bang. We were rammed into by a big white pick up truck. I was scared of the wellness of everyone in the car. The driver of the truck was speeding and distracted by his phone and did not see us while crossing the intersection. Everything was hard to process. I had my car for two days and hadn't even named it yet and in an instance, it was gone due to distracted driving. Everyone was safe in this car crash and we were all lucky to come out of it alive. But later that summer my friend Michael and three others were not so lucky. The driver was speeding while it was raining and when they went through the roundabout the driver was looking at his phone and hydroplaned. Three of them came out of it alive while Michael lost his life. Though I was not involved in this accident, it could have been avoided if they took the safe and precautionary measure to not pick up their phone while driving. Though new cars have come out to help with safe driving, not everyone can afford a car with those safety features. But people that do have the power to change the future of safe driving are phone companies. With such new technology new updates are being sent to smart phones constantly. Why can't the developers change to send out an update that doesn't allow the drivers to access certain information if they are driving like snapchat instagram and things of that nature or at least limited access. But this is just an idea and until this happens or something better is invented I will teach safety to younger generations family and friends because no text cost is worth your life or another.