In May 2008 my family and I were on our way to my inlaws house to celebrate Mother’s Day.
We never made it.
We were only a few short minutes into our drive when we were hit head-on by a drunk driver. In a split second, less time than it takes to blink, our lives were changed.
Summer is upon us, and with it comes long weekends and vacations. For many of us, this means more hours on the highway as we head to our cottage or vacation destination. And it seems for many, this also means getting to their destinations as quickly as possible, because speeding is now the top cause of road deaths in Ontario this year.
According to an article from CTV News, there have been 30 road deaths, compared to 17 at the same time last year.
That’s 30 families who will never see a loved on again because people ignore the posted speed limits. Just three days ago as we drove up to the cottage my boys and I saw three people texting while driving, and one driver who was weaving in and out of traffic so much you would have thought he was driving on a loom, not a highway.
But wait, in even more WTF news, it gets better because people are now bragging about their speedy ways. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Manitoba published a post on their Facebook page about a driver caught going 173 km/hour in a 100 km/hour zone, and people started commenting about times they were speeding, including one person who bragged about going 400 km/hour in a Ferrari. Another thinks the speed limit laws are antiquated and that 170 km/hour is nothing.
I. Can’t. Even.
Being in the accident has made me hyper-aware of how quickly things can happen. We all like to think we have it under control, that we will be able to swerve out of the way, that it will never happen to us, but the truth of the matter is accidents happen faster than you think.
So please, stop driving like an asshole. We all want to get to our destinations alive.
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