Footprints in my life: Safety First: Drive Safe and Live Long

This morning I saw a pretty new Toyota Camry whose rear has severely been damaged at the road shoulder on the way to my office.   Woah! The first thing which came up to my mind was that were there any people sitting in the back row and if yes then whether they would be injured or not.   The scene had been cleared when I passed by there and I could only hope that nobody had been seriously injured by that accident.

At the same time, it brings to my attention that safety is the most important. As we heavily and mainly depend on our cars for the transportation everyday here, we’re dealing with the freeways almost every workday. As such driving becomes our second nature just like eating and drinking. It’s not that I don’t know but sometimes I might tend to forget this very important and essential mindset.

Though, whenever I see a serious accident or hear it via the radio, it always reminds me of the “Safety first” during driving.   More importantly, I have my family waiting at home so I need to get home safe. Or my family is driving with me so the safety becomes even more important to us.

I often tend to speed up while driving for a couple of different reasons: impatience, being late and in a rush, wanting to get home as soon as possible, and so on.   And my Honda Accord has facilitated me even more with its ability of being able to be accelerated seemingly.

Once I was on my way home from work, I was speeding like a crazy.   I still remember that it was the last day at work for the long Christmas holiday back then.   As we were be on our family vacation the next day during that holiday, I was rushing and wanted to get back home in no time.   Being in a very relaxed, happy and holiday mood, I turned on the music in my car so loud. While enjoying the loud music along with a very nice sunny weather along with the blue sky, I kept taking over one car after another ahead of me.   And I of course was switching lanes quite often via the available spaces to cut across all cars before me. I noticed that I was speeding nearly 90 mph but who cared?

Then there was this High Patrol in his car with the activation of the emergency lights signaling me to stop. With my mind was so blank except thoughts about the vacation tomorrow, I really didn’t notice of it which was chasing me for quite some time. When I started noticing it via the rear mirror, I saw it stopped at the road shoulder and another cop on the motorcycle with the emergency lights on had started chasing me instead. Even then I wasn’t sure that they were chasing after me even though I was in doubt a little bit.

It was my very first time being chased by a cop so don’t laugh at me, okay? :D With all confusions, I started to decline the speed to stick with 65 or 60 mph but still I didn’t manage to stop by then. He had been following after me for quite a while and finally I realized that it was for me and then I started to pull over the car to the nearest road shoulder.

Of course, I didn't get a chance to take all these pictures but google helps :P

Guess what? I ended up paying nearly $600 for two citations: speeding and failure to stop. LOL :P Of course, I was not able to laugh at all by then. Believe me, it was one of the very embarrassing moments of my life. And it of course was expensive as well. That was quite a story, huh?

Even since, I tried to behave well and better.   However, I still do the speeding from time to time by keeping my eyes on preying any existing cop in the surrounding areas with the full alert.   After a couple of years has been well passed and I have been being lucky so far. :P

I was still so proud and confident of myself since I have nearly ten-year driving profile and never involved in any accident so far.   I’m always self-assured that I’m very careful and alert whenever I drive.   But it was until my very first yet serious accident during late last year.   Perhaps that over-confident attitude had caused me this accident.

It happened while I was trying to take over a huge and very long truck which was totally obstructing my view and was blocking my way by going at a very reduced speed. Out of impatience, I suddenly pulled over my car into the immediate next lane to my right.

However, little did I expect that there would be another stationery car right ahead of me. Yep, there was a car which was totally stopped just right before me.   Realizing that I would go and bump into her car and making sure that there were no other cars on my left lane, I immediately maneuvered my car back into my original lane where my truck was. I did switching lane instead of tapping my brake for dead stop because there was a very short distance between my car and her car; it was most likely that I would go and bump her car in that case.

However, as I was traveling at a very high speed and the sudden maneuver with force to my power steering led my car into the diagonal position which in turn was leading it into the second next line on my left, instead of staying in my original lane where the truck was ahead of me.

Then, I started immediately turning my steering wheel to my right to stay straight in my original lane.   However, instead of staying straight back to my original lane, it was leading my car diagonally again toward the right lane this time of course.   Then, I started turning my steering wheel to the left again but it started malfunction and it didn’t work. I tapped on my brake with all force but it didn’t work either.

My guess was that the brake was locked since the car was skidding out of the roadway.   It eventually went and hit to the wall of the road at the right end.   The right corner of the front bumper hit it first. Then my car started spinning out in 360 degree and the left rear bumper hit against the wall again and it stopped by then; resulting my car against the traffic.

During the whole process while I was trying my best to control my car, I was so calmed. However, when it came to a complete stop, I was so terrified and shocked for the experience. My cell flew out of my car’s door pocket and landed on the floor. As I was overwhelmed by what had just happened, my eyes became blank. Even though I saw it fell to the ground, I could not manage to grab it with my shaky hands.

And the first thing which came to my sense right away was that “Thanks God! My husband and my girls were not with me!!!!”   What’s an experience!

That's how my Mazda looks like before accident

And my Mazda was not repairable and drivable anymore. Well, it could be repaired but just that it was not worth to be repaired as the repair cost would be far beyond reasonable. I was pretty disabled to commute to work without a car. He needed to send me off and pick me up for a while we were shopping for a new car. He needed to make a big round every day as my work is at the opposite direction f his and it was such a waste of his time.

This is how my Mazda looked like after the accident :(

And shopping of a new car is always a stressful process. It was even more stressful when we only had a very limited time to do so. I wanted to drive my Mazda for a couple of more years and wasn’t planning to buy a new one at all. We knew that the car depreciated as soon as we drove it out of the dealership. Anyway, what was a little better was that we already had an experience for a new car shopping for our Accord, it helped so much for another new car hunting. Regardless, our pocket and saving was much suffered.

My new ride (well, I got his car and he got new; he always gets to drive the new one :P)

I have changed my driving nature quite a bit ever since. Just one little reckless mistake and moment, the whole car was severely damaged. First of all, I was considered to be lucky in that case as I was not injured at all. Secondly, the traffic was clear right at that moment, thus no other cars were involved. Otherwise, I might just end up like hitting to other cars in my way or I might get hit by oncoming car in my way. I might get seriously injured and even my life could be in danger either way.

Sometimes, the price we paid for the lesson learnt is huge. Speaking of driving, it could be our own life or those of our loved ones. Just to reach the destination a couple of minutes earlier, it’s totally not worth to bet or risk with our lives. It’s always important to keep in mind the “Safety First” rule. Drive safe and live long!