Distracted Driving, I Paid the Price

My distracted driving story: I am Ben Pohl and am guilty of being a “distracted driver”. I paid a great penalty at a young age (17). My penalty was spending many years relearning how to walk and speak again. My crash happened on a normal night. I was driving to a dance club with four of my best friends in the car. We were all laughing and joking. I took my eyes off the road for a second and that was plenty of time to lose control of my car and change the rest of my life. The car rolled numerous times and I was ejected from the car. Other people in the car are known to be the #1 distracter for the driver in an automobile.

Not only did I spend one month in a coma, I spent another five months relearning to walk and speak while allowing my broken body to heal. I went through more pain than anyone can imagine. After I was discharged from the hospital, I worked another 2 years on improving my physical capabilities. It has now been 23 years and I am still not where I was at physically before the crash. I think about that night each day...wishing I would have taken the huge responsibility of driving more seriously. I definitely learned my lesson. Distracted driving is extremely dangerous and unfortunately people don't learn until they are in a car crash and very bad things happen. I hope people learn from my story.