As a driver, there are two important things that you are not to do: one, don’t drink and drive, and two, don’t text and drive. But there is a third one which is usually not said as much as it should —  don’t drive when you’re tired.

Driving while exhausted can be just as dangerous as distracted driving or driving under the influence; yet, we ignore this rule simply because we, as humans, do not pay attention to the body’s cry for rest.

This is exactly what happened to me.

I had worked the night before until 12 AM, got home, and instead of going straight to sleep, I decided to go on my phone and I finally went to bed at 2AM. This decision would ultimately define what would happen later that day.

After a full day of errands, I was exhausted to the point where my eyes would slowly close and my body would start to shut down.

I had the choice of stopping on the side of the road, to go get a coffee, but being a stubborn teenager, I chose to just go straight home. As I was driving, all I could feel were my eyes getting heavier by the second, and I was fighting it the entire drive home.

The last thing I remember was driving by a Dollar Tree, and the next, I was in my distorted vehicle upside-down and surrounded by glass and deflated air-bags. I immediately looked around to check on my dog, when I saw him walking on what was essentially the ceiling of my car, I looked for a way out of the car.

Luckily, many people were around, and no one hesitated to help the two of us. Once I was out, I turned around to look at the car. The moment I saw the tires in the air rather than on the ground I looked right away. It was then that I finally came to realize that I had just crashed my car, and I knew why.

The only explanation was that I fell asleep behind the wheel.

The workload and lack of rest that I placed on myself had jeopardized multiple lives, including my own. Luckily, no one else was injured, and my dog and I are perfectly okay.

Given the circumstances, and the actual crash itself, I could have been dead.

The following hours were frightening as one would imagine, from having to make that devastating phone call to my parents that I had just been in an accident. There was also the stress of going through the insurance procedures, and how I was going to continue on without a car.

The ambulance drove me to the hospital, and it was there that the doctor told me something that I would never forget.

He told me, “You are 17 years old, and you just got into an accident from falling asleep. You are too young to be tired, let alone in a crash.”

He asked me all the activities that I am involved in, and I responded with a total of eight activities, excluding my job. He proceeded to state that I have to limit the things I do if I want to avoid a situation like this in the future.

It was at that moment that I thought of my life, and the others around me. High schoolers, specifically, are one of the most busiest groups of people I have seen in my life. With students getting out of school at ridiculous hours from extracurricular activities, I am amazed to learn that not many other instances like mine haven’y occurred.

Senior behavioral and social scientist Wendy Troxel states that one out of ten crashes are due to sleep deprivation, and individuals aged 16-24 make up for more than half of those reported crashes.

Troxel also states that only 10 percent of teenagers are getting the recommended nine hours of sleep needed to function properly, while a majority are lacking sleep.

The purpose of reporting this story is to raise awareness of the bigger issue that students face today, specifically those who drive.

We all have things to do, whether it be school related, a job, or just life in general. But we have to take a moment and rest, and not reject our body’s health and need for rest. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention even states that teenagers are “more likely to make critical decisions errors that lead to serious crashes.”

We may think ourselves as invulnerable human beings, but at the end of the day, we have to ensure that we take the time to take care of ourselves first, otherwise the unthinkable can happen. 

So take a nap, go to sleep, and everything will be okay.