Teens are Crashing and Burning while Driving

With the end of the winter season around the corner, it’s time to remember our road disasters. And hey, it’s nothing to be ashamed of. I have plenty of my own unfortunate car experiences, three of which happened last year (oops). So, if you’re accident-prone like me, you’re not alone– which might not be a good thing. Also, my mom doesn’t know about those three accidents (she might now), so don’t be like me.
Anyone who knows about the bad drivers here at North knows about a certain incident last year involving an orange jeep and a student flying through the air. And, of course, we have our very own Fargo North bad parking Instagram page that hasn’t posted anything since September. I guess that means it’s up to me to find our bad drivers.
First off, of course, we have me. Since no one wanted to come out and say that they are a bad driver (makes sense), I had to use my personal experience. My most recent experience was just a few days ago when a car backed into my poor tiny human body in a Culver’s parking lot. I quickly got over it, as it was very snowy, and ran into Culvers.
If we’re talking about actual cars, my most recent was last October, and was completely on me. I did not look both ways twice and thought I had enough time to turn left out of the school parking lot. I clearly did not have enough time, as a car crash happened.
My most traumatic car crash was after I went to ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ for the second time. I was backing out of my parking spot and – of course – hit a car. It didn’t help that I had already been crying because (spoilers) Ice died. My sister was also in the car and she was not helping. I had to call my dad and when he arrived at the scene, I was in hysterics. Luckily, he dealt with the situation (the girls I ran into were very understanding) and sent me home. I coped by eating a bunch of gummy bears.
Now that we talked about my touching bad driving experiences, we can move on. Again, since no one wants to talk about their experiences, I have resorted to articles and witnessing car crashes after school. The latter happened the Thursday before our four-day weekend when it looked like a car hit an actual school bus and also looked like the drivers were exchanging insurances. I don’t have much else information, but hitting a bright yellow bus might be an indication of poor driving.
One of our journalism students, Liv Gariano said, “I have to park in the way back of the parking lot so I have a lower risk of getting hit.”
The CDC reports on teen driving, “Crash risk is particularly high during the first months of licensure. For example, data indicate that the crash rate per mile driven is about 1.5 times as high for 16-year-old drivers as it is for 18–19-year-old drivers.”
It’s no wonder that teenage students get into car crashes. Having a license can be seen as a freedom that can come with risks including speeding tickets and distracted driving. Teenagers also tend to drive many people at once, causing even more distractions caused by peer pressure to speed or loud music. The one thing that shines through these statistics is: teenagers can be terrible drivers.