Be alert, attentive when operating a vehicle

Published 10:39 am Wednesday, February 23, 2011

By William Robinson

Cullman High School

Driving: very fun, very dangerous, and very requiring; we have all at one point or another been in that “close call” and had our passengers clutching the safety bars above their seats as they were holding on for dear life. Cars are obviously the most popular way to get from point A to point B, and the number of drivers has increased rapidly over the years. With more cars on the road, and more young and irresponsible drivers out there, you may need to brush up on your safety tips for those long cross-country road trips or just those zips to the nearest RedBox to get this week’s new release on Blu-Ray.

The first tip is to keep your eyes peeled for danger; it can lurk in the most unlikely places from the random squirrel that seems to want the nut lodged in your tire treads to the creepy ice cream man that hangs around your neighborhood, oh wait, that’s the wrong kind of danger. Anyway, keep vigilant because anything can happen.

Secondly, always leave yourself an out. An out, I thought that was that thing in baseball? Well, yes it is but it also means that you give yourself room, or an option, to get out of trouble, kind of like that get out of jail free card that you sell to the poor soul who always seems to land on the “Go Directly to Jail” space and never gets to pass go (or collect $200).

Tip three is a very important piece of advice for every aspect of life not just driving, NEVER ASSUME. This is extremely dangerous in driving because you never, and I mean NEVER, know what the other drivers are going to do, and besides, we all know what happens when you assume.

The fourth tip is to be sure to adapt your driving habits according to the weather. Driving like it’s a bright sunny day can have dangerous consequences during a blizzard. For instance, slow down if there’s a torrential downpour but you can drive with the top down if it’s sunny and 85° without a cloud in the sky, but be sure to wear a hat, because you still have to protect your scalp!

The last tip is that your reactions and response time deteriorate with age so as you get older and “wiser”, be sure to allow for more time to react and not let the overconfidence of maturity get in the way of saving your life. Now those five tips will help you be safe on the roads and have a great time getting to your destination.

 Dallas Williams ’11 understands these five tips very well and the danger involved if you don’t follow them closely. Last spring Dallas was on his morning routine, he got ready for school and headed off. He was rounding the curve by William’s Bar-B-Q on Highway 31 and glanced down at his cell phone to look at a message, “I’m not ashamed to say that I made a mistake but I looked at my cell phone instead of the road and I shouldn’t have,” admitted Dallas. The car came off the pavement and Dallas over-corrected and his car flipped multiple times.

“It seemed like hours while it was happening but I think it flipped about four times,” Dallas explained in our interview. Now Dallas is a very, very lucky person because at the time of the accident he wasn’t wearing his seatbelt and after the car finished flipping it landed right-side up and Dallas landed in the back side directly behind the driver’s seat. Dallas, even though that he was still shaken up from the accident, amazingly came to school that day unscathed by his ordeal. Dallas went on to say that, “It only takes a split second to make a mistake and luckily I survived mine.”

 Now this is just one of the real stories that take place everyday in America on the highways so buckle up and remember not paying attention can be the difference in 70 years and 17 years.