From a small bump to a large crash, car accidents are an unpleasant experience for everyone involved. Crashes may result in costly damage and people can end up getting hurt.
Junior Colin Carter was in a car crash this fall while driving home from school. At the bottom of a hill, a bus was stopped, which caused a backup to occur up the street. The driver coming up behind Carter didn’t see his car over the hill. They rear-ended him and pushed him into the car in front of him.
After getting hit, Carter’s first reaction was to see if everyone in the car was alright. Then he called his parents.
“[My mom] was really scared and then my dad got there and he was just mad,” Carter remembered.
The front of his car was crushed and the engine no longer worked. The damage totaled his car.
Today Carter waits to leave school until most of the cars have left the parking lot. He tries to avoid driving on that road since the crash.
A few weeks after Carter’s crash, senior Delaney Rush hit a car that was wrongfully turning out of a parking lot.
“I was freaking out because I had three other people in the car with me and I was trying to make sure that everyone was okay,” Rush said.
No one was seriously injured, but everyone in Rush’s car had mild concussions. Unlike Carter’s car, Rush’s was not totaled, but the damage was costly. She did not end up having to pay for the repairs as the accident was the other person’s fault.
Now that the harsh winter weather is coming, people need to be even more careful on the roads. All Star driver instructor Mark Shultz suggests that teens new to driving in bad weather only go on roads they are comfortable on.
“Be more cautious. Slow down. Break sooner. In my class we talk about snow and ice and how you don’t have as much traction,” Shultz said.
He teaches kids how to drive safely all year round. Shultz wants teens to identify the distractions before and while driving so they can avoid them. Driving slowly and keeping your attention on the road is the best thing a new driver can do.
