PSA: Don't Race


I would say that I'm a pretty good driver. I don't speed excessively, I don't aggressively swerve in and out of lanes, or do most of the other stuff people do in the name of getting somewhere marginally faster than they otherwise would have. Most members of my family are like this, so I haven't had that much exposure to people driving like maniacs. My comfort zone is being in a car that feels safe.
         One night I was hanging out with three friends and we hadn’t eaten dinner yet. We decided the move was to go to Taco Bell to get some food. As the four of us were loading into my minivan, one of my friends had a suggestion. He said that it would be fun if instead of all going together, we went in two cars and made a competition out of who could get there first. Assuming he was joking, I agreed to it. He hopped out of my minivan and took another friend into his Mustang. I wasn’t really feeling driving, so I gave the keys to the friend that was still with me. The friend with the Mustang took off towards Taco Bell, leaving my friend and I in the minivan far behind. We ended up getting to Taco Bell about 5 minutes after them and got clowned pretty hard for this. After a wonderfully healthy meal of nacho fries, we decided to head back to my house. Again, we arrived much later than the other car and were met with mocking.
         After a few minutes of hanging out in my basement, my parents approached me and told me that they had some Visa gift cards that were about to expire so we could go get some ice cream if we wanted. Everyone was down for ice cream, and we agreed on going to Custard Cup. I suggested that we all drive together, but the friend with the Mustang was really set on driving two cars. I couldn't be bothered to argue with him, so I just let him go. My friend still had the keys to my minivan, so I let him drive again. We both didn't want to get made fun of again, so we decided to take the race idea a bit more seriously. The friend who was driving me suggested that instead of taking Kirby down to Custard Cup, we go down Windsor and then take a smaller road to get to our final destination. He reasoned that because there were fewer stop signs and people typically drive faster down Windsor than they would down Kirby, we would reach faster. I was a little suspicious of this idea, but before I could argue, he had already turned onto Windsor. We were actually making pretty good time before we got stuck behind a car that was driving at like 20 mph. I could tell that my friend was getting frustrated. The stretch of Windsor that goes from Duncan to Mattis only has one lane for each direction that traffic goes, but you can go into the other lane to pass another car. My friend decided that this was a smart idea. It was not. He miscalculated how far away a car in the other lane was and we ended up on a collision course with it. Rather than slowing down and merging back into the correct lane, behind the slow-moving car, my friend decided to floor it to try to pass it before merging. We ended up barreling towards another car at 60 mph. I can’t think of another time that I was as scared for my life as I was in this moment. In order to avoid collision, the car driving towards us had to swerve onto the shoulder of the road to let us pass. We narrowly avoided hitting either car and safely merged back into the correct lane, ahead of the slow-moving car. My friend was clearly very shaken, and drove the rest of the trip at a fairly reasonable 40 mph. We ended up getting to Custard Cup like 10 minutes after the other two, where we were met with more harassment for slow driving.
         My friend wasn’t eager to drive the car going back to my house, and I didn’t want him to after he almost got us both killed. I knew an actual shortcut to get back to my house and got there before the other two in the Mustang. My biggest takeaways from this experience were 1. don’t accept offers to race and 2. don’t do unnecessarily risky things to get somewhere faster.
        


Comments

  1. BettyOctober 17, 2019 at 12:08 PM

    I found your story engaging and loved the details you added to the story about the streets you drove on. I liked how this blog post portrayed the growth you went through and how you looked back on this semi-traumatic experience as an opportunity for learning.

    ReplyDelete
  2. GrantOctober 17, 2019 at 12:14 PM

    That stretch of Windsor really sucks and I think that there is a huge focus in all aspects of our lives about being the fastest or about being the first when really its inconsequential and you'll probably have a better time if you just kick back an relax.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AngelynnOctober 17, 2019 at 7:20 PM

    LOL. I've had so many near-death moments while driving, and while it's fine to joke about them, I definitely think people need to be more careful because car accidents are a real thing. I'm glad to hear how you've learned an important lesson through this experience.

    ReplyDelete
  4. ErinOctober 17, 2019 at 8:06 PM

    I also would consider myself a good and safe driver. However, similarly to social cues in conversations that we learn to pick up from a young age, there's an unspoken "body language" to driving that we are completely unexposed to until we are 15 and sitting behind the wheel. The first time a car behind me flashed their brights at me, I was driving down Windsor and had no clue what it meant. They were riding my tail though, and I was so convinced that they were going to mow me over that I switched to the right lane without even thinking or looking, cutting off some soccer mom in a minivan. My dad later told me that flashing your brights means "get the heck out of my way", so my instinct was right but in that moment I had no idea what the car behind me wanted from me, which can be a scary and confusing situation.

    ReplyDelete

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