Exploration Five

When I was fifteen years old I had my first and only automobile accident. Despite the fact that I didn’t have a driver’s license, I was the driver in the accident. Tyler, a friend of mine, hated driving. He just couldn’t stand it. Some would say he is a bit lazy and very irresponsible. I’m not so sure that I wouldn’t agree with them, but regardless he is a good friend of mine. On this particular day he asked me to drive us to another friend’s house which was about five miles away. At the time I had my learner’s permit which I suppose we both thought was close enough to a driver’s license to allow myself behind the wheel.

                We set out for our destination at 3:30 PM, just as we had gotten home from school that day. Tyler said, “Take the back roads man.” We didn’t want to encounter a lot of traffic or police, considering the fact that I didn’t even have a driver’s license. We didn’t encounter any issues until we were about one hundred yards away from our destination.

                My friend Marcus lives on a township road which isn’t taken care of very well. It is narrow, full of potholes, littered with spots of gravel and has quite a few sharp curves. Well, me being the inexperienced driver that I was at the time, decided not to slow down for one of these very sharp curves. We took the curve at about forty-five miles per hour when we should have gone no faster than twenty-five miles per hour. This particular curve was almost ninety degrees and covered in loose gravel from a neighboring driveway. I immediately lost control of the car and it began to spin about the center while it still moved through the curve.

                Oddly, I remember this five second event seeming as if it were actually thirty seconds long.  The words that we exchanged during the crash weren’t the most pleasant. The first words from my mouth were “Ohhhhh sh--------t!” I yelled this out as Tyler gripped the door panel for dear life. He didn’t say a word. We were sliding into a yard and straight for a tree. I didn’t want to hit the tree so I began spinning the wheel back and forth and pressing the brake pedal down repeatedly hoping that it would stop the car. Fortunately it did and we were able to stop before coming into contact with anything. After coming to a stop Tyler said, “Are you alright?” “Yeah I’m good,” I replied. He said “Well let’s get the F--- out of here.” And that was my first accident.