It was during the ride going to my granny’s house when it happened. Last summer, after cheerleading practice, I was driving my mom’s silver Rav4. We were headed on a street close to my mom’s old work. There were some train tracks that we had to drive over, and little did I know that this is where it would all take place. When you got over the train tracks, there used to be a four-way stop. Now, there is just a two-way stop but not on the road that I was driving down. As I was going over the tracks, I saw a green Honda driven by an old man who seemed to be in his eighties. He was supposed to stop, but to my surprise, he ran the stop sign. I was going a little under forty because I slowed down to go over the train tracks. To try and save all of our lives, as both my mom and I were screaming, I swerved to the right in order to keep our car from t-boning him. I was hoping that we would not hit, but we did. “Pull over,” is all that my mom said.

The sound that came from the impact reminded me of when I went with my cousins to circus world and we rode the bumper cars. The old man also pulled over, and when he got out of his now totally dented and scratched car, he went directly to his trunk. I was wondering what he was doing, and then I saw him pull a cage out of his car. The metal cage had a cat in it, and the cat was wild. I could tell this because it was hissing at the old man and looked like it was in attack mode. He took the cage to an area of tall grass beside the tracks and let the cat go. He later told us that the cat was scaring away his squirrels, and so he caught it and let it go. My mom had missed the whole thing because she was already making a phone call to the police station while inspecting our car. The only thing that happened to our car was that the left headlight area was broken and dented. The old man, after he was done letting the cat go, came over to our car and asked, “Can I use your phone?”

“No Honey, I’m on the phone,” my mom replied. She was being sweet because he was a very old man.

“Please, I just need to call my wife,” he said.

“I’m on the phone right now, so you cannot use it right now.” My mom was trying to get him to understand this, and he was still asking to use her cell phone. After she finally got off the phone, she let him borrow it, and he called his wife. During all of this, I was pacing back and forth on the side of the road, trying to hold back the tears. Sirens were becoming louder as seconds went by.

Two police cars came into view, and my heart started to beat really fast. A man in a police uniform came out of each car. One of these men talked to us, and one talked to the old man. The officer asked, “How fast were you going young lady?”

“I don’t really know. I know that I was going slower than the speed limit because I slowed down to go over the tracks,” I said with a shaky voice. He went on asking more questions, and I continued to have tears rolling down my face. He told me that there was nothing to cry about and that it was no big deal. I thought it was a huge deal because I just ran into another vehicle! After about forty-five minutes, my mom and I were back on the road headed towards Granny’s house.

We arrived at her house, and I walked in the door to the kitchen. We had already called and told them why we were going to be late to their house, so they already knew about the wreck. My granny gave me a big hug, and my papa, being a jokester, said, “Hello, Crash.” This made me start to cry again.
We went outside so that they could see the damage. My papa did not seem to think the damage was as bad as it could have been. He said that it was good that I thought to swerve to avoid hitting the other car. Even though I still hit him, there was a lot less damage. Papa bent over and got a piece of foam that was stuck in the front headlight. He said that it could have been from the cushions from the seat of the other car, but I thought that it was the insulation from the car door instead of the seat. Either way, I kept it because it was a souvenir from my first and hopefully only wreck.

From this experience, I have learned to watch out for everything that could happen on the road. I used to not focus that well on the road, and I would always pray that I would get better at driving and paying attention. This experience definitely changed my state of mind while I am driving now. I focus very well, and I am a better driver. Who would have thought that something positive came out of my negative driving experience to Granny’s house?