While sitting in our family car journeying down Interstate 5, the misty clouds lit by the city lights hovered over the dark horizon. It was around 1 am, and we were coming back from our cousin’s late-night birthday party. Our spirits were still high, but I could tell the pressure to fall asleep had started building.
In the distance, my mom spotted a car wreck. Swiping past it, I got a more detailed look at the incident. The car had swerved into the left concrete wall of the freeway, its front left bumper crumpled by a momentary shock. But unlike an abandoned crash, the car alarm was blaring, and I could hear its pitch shift while we drove past.
I checked in the mirror to get a better glimpse of the view, but to my surprise, I saw a man waving his arms at my mirrored face.
“Mom, there’s someone next to the car,” I said, “they might be hurt.” She had initially assumed that emergency help had already passed, but my statement brought this incident into our hands.
By the time my mom had slammed on the brakes and stopped on the shoulder, we were a quarter mile ahead. So, we sprinted back to the accident, careful not to stray too close to the oncoming traffic.
My father started the conversation. “Do you need any help?” he yelled. I looked in shock as we approached the passenger because I saw how damaged his body was. I don’t remember the words said as my heart raced, but I know we called the ambulance.
I looked closer at the car, illuminated by every pair of headlights that passed us. I saw an object on the ground and presumed it was the driver’s side door that had fallen off, but then I realized the thing on the ground was a person. The driver had fallen onto the road, presumably from not wearing a seatbelt. I kept my distance, knowing how much more shock I could experience by seeing the injuries.
The person we communicated with was the passenger, who explained that the crash happened when the driver fell asleep and veered into the concrete wall. After a moment, the ambulance arrived, and the two victims were being cared for. We were told we were free to go back home and should get some rest.
As teens who are new to driving, we must stay cautious on the road.
Looking back, I remember the incident as a series of graphic images and heart-pounding fear. It was the first time I had seen a bad car accident. As a student working to get his license, this story shook me to the bone, but also served as a lesson where I learned the true consequences of not being careful on the road.
Driving with little sleep is called “drowsy driving,” and it’s so dangerous that it’s comparable to drunk driving. According to the CDC, staying awake for 17 hours straight has a similar impairment on the mind and body as having a blood alcohol content of 0.05%, just below the legal limit for intoxicated driving.
In 2015, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found that drowsy driving causes 90,000 crashes per year, which could have potentially been mitigated if drowsy driving had the same stigma as drunk driving. According to the National Sleep Foundation, 1 in 6 youth have driven drowsy in their first two years.
To solve this problem, many modern car companies, like Mercedes, Chevrolet, and Nissan, have started implementing drowsiness detection mechanisms by tracking steering wheel contact and lane exit detection. With technology advancing rapidly in this area, we could have a solution to inattentive driving incidents.
In 2021, it was reported that 77% of teenagers were getting inadequate levels of sleep nightly, defined as under 7 hours of sleep nightly. In addition to drowsy driving, because teenagers lack full executive function, a lack of sleep increases the likelihood of risky and potentially dangerous behaviors such as self-medicating with alcohol and reckless driving.
Most teenagers view their driver’s license as the first real freedom they experience. Additionally, social pressures from friends can compel inexperienced teen drivers to engage in reckless and irresponsible behavior. I’ve heard stories of first-year drivers getting into car accidents or driving off the road because they were either street racing or simply weren’t paying attention.
I love talking about driving with my friends: from trips to the beach, to driving back together from soccer practice, to funny memories from the 7/11 trips we would take after school. Regardless of the benefits and memories that driving provides us as teens, we need to make sure that we take the rules of the road seriously. We shouldn’t need to see a gruesome accident to shock us into being safe on the road.
What can we do to prevent this from happening in the future?
California law prevents new drivers from driving past 11 pm and also mandates seatbelts, two rules the driver from this story could have followed to stay safe. Furthermore, another technique this driver could have used to avoid this crash would be to simply pull off the freeway and take a nap. Although it may sound ridiculous, it could be the difference between safely making it home or ending up on the local news.
