My First Traumatic Moment
It is May 7, 2019, the day is clear and sunny. We come home from school and my parents from work. My mom is not feeling well so my dad is taking her to the clinic. I don’t want to waste the beautiful day so I ask my parents if I can take the other car and treat my siblings to Starbucks. They hesitate because it’s rush hour but eventually agreed to let us go. We get into the white Honda Odyssey and start to drive. The three of us arrive at Starbucks, get our drinks and leave to go back home. On the drive back, we hit traffic and after the long wait of 5 minutes before entering the roundabout. It is finally our turn to go, suddenly a transport truck enters making the car in front of us to stop so I hit the brakes. Suddenly my siblings and I feel the car get shoved forwards and we scream with fear. I look into the rear view mirror and a black Ford pickup truck has rear-ended my mom’s van. This is my first accident as the driver and I don’t know what to do besides tell the man to follow me to the nearest plaza. I pulled into a parking spot and the truck pulled up beside me. I get my sister to call my dad while I get out to process everything that just happened. I can’t stop shaking and crying but I have to go talk to the owner of the pickup truck. He asks me “what happened?”, my first thought was, is he serious? How could someone ask that when they caused the accident? My response is “what do you mean what happened? You hit me”. I tell him that I was only 17 with a G2 and not sure what to do. I make him aware that my dad is coming and ask him to call the cops. While the man is on the phone with the cops my parents arrive. My dad gets out of the car and his first reaction is to yell at me when it wasn’t even my fault. My dad yelling at me didn’t help because I’m still in shock and crying, it stresses me out more. The man gets off the phone and comes over to talk to us. He said the officer told him since both cars are driveable, to go down to the station and make a report. We exchange insurance information, take pictures of both cars, licence plates, and depart to the police station. Then we arrive at the station, grab a ticket, find somewhere to sit and wait for our turn. I go to the bathroom so I can clean the tears off my face. When I came out it’s our turn to make a report. I start to explain the situation but I can’t stop shaking. The lady gives me toy trucks and a piece of paper to help explain the accident better. We fill out all the forms and are good to go. Afterwards, we get into the car and my dad calls the insurance company, hands me the phone so I can tell them in detail what had happened. Even though it was a bright, clear and sunny day it sure did not feel like it anymore. Overall, the whole encounter is very traumatic and overwhelming for me. I’m just glad my parents were able to arrive and help me step by step through the process. For weeks I could not bring myself behind the wheel. During those, every time we approached any roundabout my heart would start beating as fast as a rabbit.
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AuthorA grade 12 student at Jacob Hespeler Secondary School ArchivesCategories |