“What do you feel like eating?” I said to my 12-year-old sister, who was sitting in the passenger seat as I was driving home. She did not have a chance to answer. As I was turning under a traffic light, a lady was too busy being entranced by the screen in her hand to pay attention to the red light she was fixing to drive through. Without even a chance to blink, she hit us. It had taken only a moment, but in that moment the world seemed to be played in slow motion. I could see her coming toward us. I could see me trying to turn the wheel. I could see my sister bobbing back and forth as the other car made impact with mine. She had hit my car with so much force, it was pushed into the opposite side of the street. My sister seemed paralyzed in the seat, not sure if she was dreaming or was in reality. I kept asking her, “Are you OK?” “Is anything broken?” She simply stared at me, scared. I did not even get out of the car; I was too scared to see the damage in the front. I could hear the ambulance coming and the police. I decided I should get out to see if I was OK enough to walk. I was fine. But I definitely was going to have a bad case of whiplash for the next couple of days, along with my sister. I tried to go to the other car to see if the lady was OK, but there were too many people around her car. When the ambulance arrived, they had to take the lady out of her car and put her in a stretcher.
It threw me off when the policeman said, “The lady who hit you and her brother are saying you ran the red light.” I mean, of course they would say that. And the policeman would have no choice but to believe the adult instead of the 19-year-old, right? Right.
Thankfully, a man who was driving behind me had pulled over to give the policeman a statement saying that I did have a green light and the lady who hit me did run a red light. See, I am not mad about the car. I mean, the wreck could have been a billion times worse. I am mad about the fact that the lady knew she was in the wrong and did not want to take the blame for it. She tried to accuse me of something I was not responsible for.
This lady was not paying attention to the road and could have either gotten herself severely hurt or two kids severely hurt. But she wouldn’t take the blame.
If you don’t want to be the reason for another person’s injuries, THEN DON’T DRIVE.
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