Published: Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2009 / Updated: Friday, Oct. 30, 2009 11:12 AM
I pray for drivers to wise up
I was moved to tears this morning as I read about the untimely deaths of Michelle DiBernardini and Luke Hoover. Both were young, thriving high school students with the world at their fingertips whose lives were snuffed out in automobile accidents last week.
My heart aches for their parents, who should never have had to live through losing a child. I am a parent myself and cannot even fathom such a personal tragedy. I only cried for 10 minutes though, a mere fraction of the time the families and friends of Michelle and Luke will mourn.
My sadness was quickly replaced by anger at the waste, and even more, the ignorance of most drivers about the power they hold in their hands every time they get behind a wheel.
I, too, have been guilty of this.
Who can say they've never driven well over the speed limit or acted aggressively on the road? I won't even get into my pet peeve about hand-held cell phone use while operating a motor vehicle. That is blatant disregard for the other drivers, pedestrians and bicyclists on the road and the fact that it is legal and so prevalent in our state really sticks in my craw. The reason for this very careless behavior to be allowed by law is the same reason we all tail gait or cut slower drivers off at times: selfishness. God forbid we, the most important person on the planet in our opinion, should have to pull over to have a phone conversation, or worse, pass it up all together. We have deluded ourselves into believing we can dial, yap and drive perfectly at the same time.
Wrong!
Look around at all the mistakes drivers make every day. I bet you notice that 95 percent of them are on their phones when they make stupid moves. I also bet you think you aren't like that. I'm here to tell you that you are.
The greed and the its-all-about-me attitude which runs rampant in our society, has manifested itself in many ways. How do you think we got into this economic mess? But I digress. The website www.car-accidents.com says one person in our country dies in a car wreck every 13 minutes in our country – that's 115 people a day! Five thousand of those deaths are kids between the ages of 16 and 20 and these are not solely alcohol related. Obviously we are doing something very wrong and I am suggesting it all comes down to choosing to recognize the serious responsibility driving actually is.
Personally, I am going to try very hard to remind myself every single time I start my engine that I am the only person in charge of that car, which most certainly is a lethal weapon and must be handled with extreme care. I pray that every driver who reads this will do the same. Wouldn't you rather get home safe and know you didn't take anyone's life today rather than “win” at being the first person to get to the next red light?
Crystal Stango
Long House Lane
Indian Land
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