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May 15, 2005 Yesterday I was driving home from visiting my paernts. It had been a good day for a Friday the 13th. I had gone to the V.A. for some tests and ate a nice breakfast at Denny's. I was looking forward to getting home and relaxing for awhile. As I approached a little town my parents live in, my wife and I saw a young girl approaching us from the south. We were heading her way and there was a street that the high school kids use as a short cut to the high school. I slowed just a bit as I could see she was turning no matter how close I was. She turned and went up the hill just as we noticed a second car aproaching quickly. The young girl behind the wheel had not even looked our way yet as she began her turn. My wife and I spoke out in stereo "Oh my God... She isn't even looking at us!!! She doesn't even know we are here!!!" True to our words, the young girl turned in front of me without even glancing up. Her eyes were glued to the car that had already turned in front of us. I slammed on my brakes and steered off to the left of the road to try and avoid hitting her. It was far too late for that. For the first time in my 46 years of life, I was about to feel the impact of a car crash. She hit the right front of my van and as she did, she looked up as if she wondered where the hell we had come from. The vehicles stopped, looked towards my wife who is crippled with Muscular Dystrophy and saw she was dazed and hurting. I jumped out of the van as the young driver came over and asked if we were alright. Scared for my wife and angry at the situation before me, I YELLED "What in the hell were you looking at?? Not us, that is for sure!!!" As I looked at this young girl, no more than 16, I was sure, I felt bad for yelling as I had. I asked her if she was alright and she just bawled and shook her head yes. She told me and later repeated to the police that she never looked up to see us. She was looking at the car that had turned in front of her up the hill. The police came, an ambulance came and took my wife to the hospital. She was given a CT Scan and x-rays and her heart was checked as she has a heart condition in which she had just spent over a week in the hospital for. She was released later and we had to get a vehicle to drive until our van is fixed. The young driver was in fact a 16 year old girl. Justtt barely 16 as it turned out. I had just recently spoken to a freind of mine who had told me a close friends daughter had been killed when she failed to yeild to a semi-truck. She was also 16 years old. I have two nephews that have both been in accidents before they turned 17. Is there a pattern here??? I know I drove long before I was sixteen but my dad as a lot of yours did I am sure, took me out on a gravel road far from any humans and taught me to drive. He also let me drive on the ranch and learn to be a defensive driver and then he put me through a defensive drivers course. Let's see... My father nor mother nor any of my siblings have been involved in car accidents that were their fault. My father of 73 years old and two sisters have never been in one at all. This was my first in my 46 years of life. The increase in young drivers being involved in traffic accidents has risen by 21% in the past five years. I ask you what is different about these young drivers of today and the drivers of yester-year??? Is the speed of the life style we now must lead to fast for their inexperienced minds? IS the lack of discipline at home and at school now showing up behind the wheel??? Perhaps the sluggish, non listening, non feeling that they have to listen to anyone or obey any rules becoming a hazard to my life on the road?? I don't have the answer, but since yesterday's incident you can believe me when I say I am for certain looking into it. Perhaps we need to raise the age of becoming a licensed driver or extend the length of time that a "student driver" has to remain a "student driver." Let them drive with their mom and dad in the car with them. Let the parents be responsible for making sure their kid is taught the right way to drive. Make every new driver go through a six week driving course before issueing them a drivers license. Accidents are going to happen... that is why they call them accidents. But we need to make these young drivers, which by the way, their numbers have also increased by 32%, better equipped to face the fast pace living that we all face today. I don't want to take them off the road... I just want to make them safer to be on the road. I pray each day that you live to be one hundred years old and that I live one day less than you so that I never have to know a world without you in it. ------------ About the author: Darrel Day is the author of Abduction, available in stores everywhere and through publishamerica.com, amazonbooks.com, barnes and noble books and Books A Million. He resides in a small town in Iowa with his wife and two daughters. He is also the author of soon to be released "Until Death Do We Meet". He has studied and taught the word of God throughout the past twenty years. He does NOT condemn nor judge anyone because of their beliefs. That... is between them and God... I also have an MSN Group site http://group.msn.D-R-Day that you can join. My web site also up though I am still adding to it. www.angelfire.com/crazy3/darrelday Email: boogieman_50627@yahoo.com Tell a friend about this site! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com and are not allowed to be posted on other websites. ARTICLE THIEVES WILL BE PROSECUTED! |
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