Lexi Owen, a senior at West, was racing to get to work on time. Owen sped around a curve following a truck. Suddenly, the truck in front of her braked and she quickly tried to stop her own car. She was unable to stop in time and hit the trailer hitch of the truck, denting her front bumper into the shape of a ‘v’. Although neither Owen nor the truck driver were injured, Owen was still shaken up by this experience.
“I definitely should have been driving slower and paying more attention to the car in front of me,” Owen said. “Once a car crash happens to you, it will change the way you look at things. You can’t really tell anyone to drive safe until they know they have to.”
13 to 18-year-olds is the most likely to get in a car accident in America according to www.cdc.com. Male drivers in this age group are twice as likely to be accident as their female counterparts. In January of 2014, Will Spannagel, a senior at West, flipped his car while driving with his friends Grant Anderson and Jordan Cantrell, both seniors at West.
“Every guy thinks it’s fun to go out and raise a little hell,” Spannagel said. “But I feel like if they weren’t with me, I probably wouldn’t have done it because it’s not as fun if you’re by yourself.”
Male drivers in this age group are twice as likely to be accident as their female counterparts. In January of 2014 senior Will Spannagel flipped his car while driving with his friends Grant Anderson and Jordan Cantrell, both seniors at West.
“Every guy thinks it’s fun to go out and raise a little hell,” Spannagel said. “But I feel like if they weren’t with me, I probably wouldn’t have done it because it’s not as fun if you’re by yourself.”
Distracted driving killed 3,328 in 2012 alone. The United States Department of Transportation is the leading effort to stop sources of distraction such as texting and other types of cell phone use.
“We had left the house to go check my schedule at work and we went down south mills river road,” Spannagel said. “It was getting pretty slick but we were having fun drifting a little. Then we went around a curve and my rear end slid out from behind me and we went up a bank and rolled the car.”
According to www.edgarsnyder.com, car crashes are the leading cause of death in teen drivers. When other teenagers are in the car, the risk of being in a fatal car crash is doubled. In 2011, 3,115 teens died in a car accident. Fifty one percent of these fatalities occurred in a car driven by another teen.
“My mom was just glad we were all okay,” Spannagel said. “Nobody got hurt.”
B.R.A.K.E.S. (Be responsible and keep everyone safe) is an organization that provides free drivers education courses. Its main goal is to educate student drivers and their parents the importance of safe and responsible driving. The program provides several exercises to help student drivers learn what to do in emergency situations. For example, the course offers an exercise that will teach a student how to keep control when their car drops a wheel of the road’s shoulder.
“I wish it wouldn’t have happened, but I look at a car as just a material thing,” Spannagel said. “They make them every day. I can always get another one.”
By: Carlie Gillespie
