I have finally decided to stop speeding and driving recklessly.

[erub]

At the age of 17 years, 9 months, I have realized that my luck has finally run out. I don't know why it took me 21 months and 4 accidents, 1 ticket, and many near misses to realize this, but for some reason it has. By any definition I was a bad driver, I thought with my Escort Passport 7500 mounted on my dash I was invincible. If anybody is interested, I had 1 major at-fault accident, a year ago May, where I totalled two cars. A year ago from now, I was hit from behind (couldn't have done anything about that one). Last Thanksgiving a guy ran a red light, and I made a left-turn without checking with a protected green arrow, and he ran into me. And finally, I had a small fender bender last April, where I tapped into somebody from behind. But, it took me three recent events to realize that I needed to slow down. Three friends of my car were on the Tollway in Dallas, going along at 70 in the left lane, where a car in the right lane (3 way highway), switched to teh center, the person in the center had to switch, clipping the back of my friends car. Luckily for him and my best friends, he was able to contain control of the car and they all emerged unscathed, with a minor $1500 damage worth to his Camaro. Then, I got a speeding ticket, 80 in a 60 on LBJ Freeway. I wasn't going to do any more speeding, because of the 6 month probation period. This happend about 3 weeks ago, and I had slowly been creeping up from driving the speed limit to about 5 mph over. Then this happend. A friend of mine was killed in a car wreck. I don't think I will be speeding anymore.

I apologize for anybody I put in danger with my driving.

 

[Robert01]

Sorry.

 

[geno]

It took me one speeding ticket to stop driving like a madman - but at least you saw the light before it was too late and cause irreversible damage.... I'm sorry to hear about your friend - I'm sorry that it took that to make you become more conscious of your driving as wel...

 

[etech]

Sorry to hear about your friend.

Hopefully your post will cause at least one other person to think about how they are driving.

 

[spanky]

congrats on your decision. i myself have come to that decision recently too. used to cruise 85-90mph all the time. after a nice speeding ticket brought me back down to earth, i've been coasting at 65mph since. i've noticed i've gained an additional 5mpg too. not bad at all.

 

[Viper GTS]

Excellent choice.



My driving record is something like yours, I've been driving for 30 months & I've had 5 wrecks (not all major, not all at fault, but still 5), one careless driving ticket stemming from one of the wrecks, & one speeding ticket (72/55). I did well for almost a year until three elk ran out in front of me. Luckily I was only going 40-45 mph, if I'd been going fast (straight stretch of country road, 75+ is cake) both me & my brother would likely be dead. That pretty much solidified my slow & careful driving, even though there's nothing I could have done to prevent it the fact that I was driving slow kept me alive.

I've done some stupid stuff (drop into the left lane, 85-90 mph all the way home in a 55 zone; 100 mph on country roads), but I lived through it & didn't kill anyone. I've totalled two cars out of total of three I've driven regularly.

And I'm only 19.

That's bad.

Out of curiosity, do you have a girlfriend? That was my biggest influence, knowing that if I killed myself one little girl was going to be heartbroken.

Viper GTS

 

[swai]

4 accidents in 21 months, yikes!

 

[spanky]

i don't have a gf, but i know if something happened to me...A LOT of women will be heartbroken

 

[erub]

no g/f for me. My parents, although they are a nag all the time, do care for me a lot, and continually told me to slow down. It just is now that I got the picture.

 

[rh71]

I used to think I was invincible as well. First it was speeding, 2 speeding tickets have slowed me down and I have to constantly remind myself of this. What had really scared me $#!Tless was when I hydroplaned on a rainy night while on a 7 hour trip home from school. It happened as I started to hit the brakes trying to slow for a ramp exiting the highway... well the steering wheel turned, but the car didn't... and instead we plunged straight ahead... luckily it was just a dirt embankment there... a few more feet forward and I would have hit right into the side of a stone bridge going about 40mph. The dirt there saved damage not only to my car, but my life. Looking back, it could have been the lives of all 4 of us in the car. Never again will I test the limits during the rain.

Sorry to hear about your loss... sorry you had to learn this way. It's not worth it to speed and get there 5 whole minutes quicker.

 

[venk]

sorry about your friend man, but 4 accidents in 21 months? Speeding or not, you have to work on your driving skills and road awarness.

 

[Midnight Rambler]

Sorry to hear about your friend.

In your pledge to drive more safely, I hope you always wear your seatbelt, as not only does the belt system help you, but if you also have an airbag system, it will be far less efficient if you are not also buckled in. Another thing is that you should always lock your doors. Depending on what door latching system they use, car doors can and do come open more often if the door latch is in the unlocked position. Also we should remember that reckless driving is even more dangerous than speeding. That's something that bugs me about law enforcement - they target only speeders, but it's usually some idiot ducking in and out of lanes, cutting people off, etc., that causes an accident. And I swear some people have forgotten how to use a turn signal properly.

 

[dman]

Well, I'm sure you'll be less of a hazard with your new goal. You'll also soon realize that when following all the rules of the road you find yourself in other dangerous situations.

There is, IMHO, a happy medium where you take some risks of getting ticketed but you are much safer than being Mr. Driving Instructor.

 

[TripleJ]

Sorry to hear about your friend. It is quite amazing the number of people that are friends of friends of mine that have been killed or know others that have been. My grandma was knocked off her bicycle and killed by a car(before I was born) and my grandad was also knocked of his bicycle by a car. Then my brothers friend had a car fly off an embankment and land ontop of his car. He sustained quite severe brain damage. Then a friend of dads at work had an horrific head-on with the whole family in the car, losing one member and the rest have an injury of some sort.

I used to drive maybe 10 k's over the limit but a year later I realised that it wasn't worth it and sticking to the limit hardly makes any difference to your travel time. I have to tell my parents not to speed half the time. My dad should learn, he's had soooo many speeding tickets.