By Maggie Rechkemmer-

Blaring music fills your ears while you try and focus on the road, but you are so tired from the school day that your vision is a blur. Your friends laugh and sing in the backseat while you have to keep turning around to tell them to be quiet. Your boyfriend texts you, and you do your best to forget about it and focus on driving. BOOM. While reaching behind your seat to tell your friend to stop kicking the back of your seat, you steer out of your lane and crash into the side of another car. It’s a mother or father’s worst nightmare to hear that their child was involved in a car accident.

Unfortunately some teenagers will experience a car accident. If it is less than tragic, parents will look at it as a learning experience for you. Having loud music and loud friends in your car can result in an accident if you are not fully focused. Sometimes it is not just you, the driver, that your parents shouldn’t trust. It’s other drivers as well.

Senior Cody Ehresman was on his way home from work late at night on July 27, 2014. Cody began to nod off and eventually fall asleep behind the wheel of his truck. He woke up to the sound of his truck smashing into a house. The accident occurred on E34 between Anamosa and Fairview. Police officers and an ambulance responded to a 911 call and showed up at the scene of the accident. Luckily Cody had a few cuts and bruises to the arms, but that was it. No one in the house that Cody hit was injured. Unfortunately his truck was completely totaled and he was given a ticket, because he failed to control his vehicle. Cody’s advice to drivers who are tired and behind the wheel is to, “Call someone and talk to them on the phone.” When asked how the accident affected Cody to this day, he said that he really misses his truck.

Seventeen-year-old Alex Abresch was 8 years old when her family was in a serious car accident with a drunk driver. Alex’s mother, father, brother were all in the car. They were headed home from their grandparents house on New Year’s Eve in the middle of the night. Unexpectedly, a drunk driver came out of nowhere crashing into the side of the car. This caused the car to spin quickly out of control and end up in the ditch. Everyone in the car had serious injuries and needed to be taken to the hospital immediately.

Obviously this wasn’t the Abresches’ fault, because they were not intoxicated while operating a motor vehicle. These types of accidents are the kind that make, drivers not trust other drivers on the road. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Drunk drivers killed an estimated 10,322 people in the year 2012. From experiences like these we know anything can happen at any time even when you least expect it. Alex said, that this accident still haunts her to this day, because of how sudden the accident was. She remembers waking up in an ambulance immediately following the accident.

Senior Brandon Keen crashed his truck on Palisades Road in December of 2013.Brandon’s car slid on an icy patch and went off the road hitting a mailbox and a tree. Brandon was charged with a fine, because the police stated that he failed to control his vehicle. The ticket amount was $195.

In this situation it wasn’t Brandon’s fault, because of the icy patch on the road. “The city should have cleared the streets better,” Brandon says, but he knew he had to accept the ticket. Weather conditions are something you always need to be aware of as a driver.

As high school students we get excited because we are given a giant amount of freedom when we turn sixteen, but with a driver’s license comes a lot of responsibility. Sixteen year old Nick Bevans was with sophomore Chloe Guillaume on their way to do the polar plunge in Lisbon last spring. Nick’s tire hit a loose spot in the gravel and ended up rolling his Jeep into the ditch. The Jeep did a full turn so it ended up back on its wheels. Neither Chloe nor Nick was hurt, and they were able to get the car out and drive it home with no problems.

In the spring of 2014, senior Trevor Baty was on his way to a cast party with sophomore Sam Krapfl in his car, after a play they performed in. They were driving down Mount Vernon Road. It was around 10:30 p.m., and no one really knew how to get there. Trevor was leading the way. He put his turn signal on to turn into a driveway and junior, Mickey Hines, who was following, was not aware of him turning. This resulted in Mickey rear ending Trevor’s right back side of his car, totaling both cars. There were no injuries and they decided to not call the police department. Mickey’s insurance paid for Trevor’s car and he ended up buying a new one. In the end neither Mickey or Trevor were able to go to the cast party.

Driving comes with lots of responsibility and accidents will happen. No matter if it’s 100 percent your fault or 100 percent the other driver’s fault. They will happen. “I am definitely more cautious while driving, especially on icy roads since my accident happened on an icy patch,” said senior Abby Gross. “Experiencing an accident will make you more aware of everything around you while driving.”