Dying to Drive
Lara Goodwin talks about the risks of dangerous driving and experiences 'Dying to Drive'
Two girls have a punctured tire. They pull over and one of them changes it; then a boy comes flying round the corner, far over the speed limit, and plows into the girls’ car. One girl is killed, and the other injured. The boy is also screaming in agony. This is how the police officer summarized the scene.
A couple of weeks ago my school year and I travelled to Peterchurch to experience ‘Dying to Drive’. Aware that it was going to be a little gloomy, I don’t think any of us could prepare ourselves for the shocking, distressing scene that was before us. Dying to Drive constructed a graphic, poignant representation of a real car accident. This was the nearest myself or any of my friends would get to a crash without actually being in one.
The officer described each moment in the split seconds it took for a crash to happen. As the scene then unfolded it took 25 long minutes for the fire brigade to recover the screaming boy from the car. As I spoke to my friend after she said, ‘the worst thing was the screaming, I just wanted him to stop.’ Dismay was then added when the focus turned to the dead girl. As they picked her up the police officer said, ‘her phones ringing, it’s mum.’ This moment brought it home to us how it doesn’t just affect the people in the crash, but many, many others as well.
The visual elements of the scene were upsetting but the sociological side was far more emotional. The police officer explained what was happening throughout the demonstration and made us emphasize, putting our siblings, our parents, our friends or ourselves in that situation; it was agonizing.
Dying to Drive is definitely something I have learnt a lot from and think others, older than me, should see. Now, every time I hear a siren, it sends a shiver down my spine.
