Accidents are always happening, whether you’re on the highway, back roads, beltway, or even in your own school parking lot. Whether you’re a reckless driver, or a cautious driver, you’re bound to be in or involved in a car accident sometime in life. Today, the leading cause of death among teenagers is automobile accidents.
“I felt really frustrated and guilty,” said Caroline Timmerman (’18) who was involved in a car accident two weeks ago off of York Road. “The car stopped in front of me and I couldn’t stop in time,” she said. Although Timmerman’s car was damaged severely from hitting the car in front of her, everyone was okay. Timmerman said she was not texting during this collision and still feels awful that the accident occurred.
On average there are nearly 1.3 million people who die in car crashes every year that means that there are 3,287 deaths a day. Most of car crashes involve people 16 to 19 years old. New drivers are more likely to experience a collision early in their driving career because they are unexperienced, and make careless mistakes sometimes. That makes them more vulnerable to a car accident.
“I was on York Road and I was driving to Hereford High School and I was going over the speed limit and came over top of a hill where I caught air and flew into a guardrail,” Joel Drawbaugh (’17) said. Drawbaugh was in a car accident two weeks ago where his car had flipped four times before landing in a ditch. Drawbaugh was able to open the car door and walk up the hill to the side of the road. His car was totaled, but luckily he only had a minor concussion. “I was really upset about my car and I was just out of it,” Drawbaugh (’17) said.

“The most recent accident I had involved a women who pulled out in front of me, coming across, so I hit my brakes, and hit her. Luckily, we were both driving trucks and everybody was okay, but it did 25,000 worth of damage to the truck I had just bought three months before,” Spanish teacher Brett Baier said. Baier is concerned about driving safety and how students who walk around the hallways texting and on their phones are more likely to sit in their cars and do so as well.
Driving while texting is one of the lead causes of death among teenagers and is an occurring problem within adults as well. In 2009 Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley signed a bill that prohibited texting while driving on Maryland highways and roads. A year later, another bill was signed by O’Malley prohibiting handheld cell phones while the vehicle is in motion. As years have passed the law has been modified to decrease the amount of texting while driving accidents.
Now, in drivers education classes the driving teacher is required to show student drivers videos of texting and driving experiences to try to influence student drivers that texting while driving is a serious problem. The estimate cost of a texting while driving ticket ranges between $75 to $175 dollars, but if involved in a more fatal accident, the consequences are more severe.