There I was, behind the wheel, texting and driving. I intended to type out the message, “Meet me at McDonald’s in 20 minutes.” I did not get past, “Meet me at.”
I looked up at the road to see a car pull out in front of me. I switched lanes, but oncoming traffic was headed straight toward me. I then tried to get back in my lane, overcorrected, veered off the road and crashed.
The good news, however, is that this was just a simulation. All this happened on Thursday morning, Nov. 1 when I drove a simulator that AT&T brought to Brentwood Academy. I was there with Cathy Lewandowski, senior public relations manager, to shadow for the corporation.
I regret to inform you that I crashed no more than 7 seconds into the challenge. The simulator is designed to drive a point: you never know what may happen on the road while you are behind the wheel. The simulation had cars pulling out in front of me, pedestrians jaywalking and stoplights quickly transitioning from green to red.
These are obstacles you can easily avoid if you are paying attention but are much more difficult if you are not being fully attentive.
When I was driving back to campus I experienced a real life obstacle of my own. I was driving down Granny White when a car in the opposite lane began drifting into my lane. I adjusted my car to the edge of the road, which was possibly a life-saving move because by the time our vehicles crossed paths the other person’s vehicle was halfway into my lane.
I did not think too much of it, until the thought occurred to me: if I had been texting, would I have made that move in time? When you send a text while driving, you shift your focus away from the road for an average of 5 seconds. If you are driving 55 mph, in those 5 seconds you will have driven the length of a football field.
About 3 seconds passed from the time I recognized the other vehicle was drifting into my lane to the time we crossed paths. I cannot say with absolute confidence that I would have caught that if my full attention were not on the road.
While going through the process of attaining a driver’s license, we are constantly reminded about the importance of driving safely. However, once we become so used to driving our vehicles, I think we forget the risks that we take each time we get behind the wheel.
I am reminded of a scene from the movie Dumb and Dumber when Jim Carrey’s character, Lloyd Christmas, is giving his crush, Mary Swanson, a ride to the airport.
Lloyd completely turns his head away from the road to talk to Mary, but then Mary insists he keeps his eyes on the road. To which Lloyd responds, “Gotta be careful, a lot of bad drivers out there.”
We trust countless other people with our lives each time we take the wheel. We assume that they will follow the rules of the road, stay in their respective driving lanes and be paying attention when an unforeseen event occurs.
While we place so much trust in others, we need to recognize that just as much trust has been placed in us. I’m glad all it took was a simulation, rather than a real life catastrophe, to make that point to me.
Image courtesy of HS News Network