Not even a week ago, I totaled the car I've had for years. Luckily, I walked away with only a couple bruises, burns, and a 5 hour precautionary trip to the hospital. This morning, my mom let me borrow her car to go to work and it was my first time behind the wheel since I slammed into the back of an SUV going over 40mph. Im not a bad driver, at least not normally. I had my license suspended for over a year and was still a delivery driver for the ever-so-popular Jimmy John's, so sure of myself that I wouldn't get a ticket, that "I'm too safe for that". Well, with my track record I should have never even had a car. A week after getting my license, I totaled my first car, an old Dodge Neon, maybe a 1995 model. I was checking out this hot guy in the lane next to me, doing the look over and look back thing, and I looked over for too long and rear ended the person in front of me. Besides feeling like a total jackass, I also was pretty beat up. That car was never to be seen again by my eyes, probably wound up in a junkyard or scrapped for parts or metal. Between crashing my first car and getting my next one, my dad let me borrow his Audi. With his collection of cars at the time, including a late 60's Datsun, a late 70's corvette, and an MR2 Spider, the audi wasnt his pride and joy, but it was still the most expensive car I had ever drove.
It wasnt long after, maybe a month or two, before I side-swiped another car(parked car, but still..)with the Audi. I of course told my dad that I was the one who was hit while in a parking garage, but he only bought that story for a couple months.
And then there was my plymouth acclaim: white, rusted, high miles, had gold trim and gold colored rims, paint chipping, and it definately needed a new muffler. I threw so much money into that car, but I loved her. She was my escape, when I had a bad day I would just drive around to blow off steam. Over the past three years, shes had a couple dings, a broken trunk, a blown head gasket, new brakes, blown fuses and lights left and right, but she was my baby.
But it was her time, my friends and I decided that I'M not the bad driver in rear ending someone, but just that my car had a death wish and committed suicide into the back of that SUV last week.
But it was only this morning that I had an epiphany: I am a terrible driver. Not only me, but every single one of my friends I fear to be in a car with. We constantly blow red lights, stop signs, cut people off, dont use turn signals, swirve all over the road, and speed as much as possible without getting pulled over. I will also (not proudly) admit that every single friend of mine has driven while extremely intoxicated, stoned, while in the act of drinking or smoking, and sometimes on even worse drugs. I dont trust people my age on the road, and I dont even trust myself on the road most times. After getting in an accident because I was checking out a hot guy, I should have not been given a nicer car to crash, I should have had my license taken away until I could give my full attention to the road.
With all the distractions in todays world: passengers, cell phones, radio, now even televisions in cars, what ever happened to just getting from point A to point B and driving well? I also wonder why people who are 16 are getting fancy cars when I know as well as any teenager that they will probably smash it. And also, I believe you need to live with a crappy car to truly apprechiate and respect having a nice one. Sorry for my rambling, and thank you for reading.