Tragic Accidents by Angelica

Tragic Accidents by Angelica - February 2015 Scholarship Essay

The book I've chosen is Tears of a Tiger. Tears of a Tiger was created by Sharon M. Draper, a famous urban teen novel writer. This is an urban novel tells a story about a boy named Andy. Andy goes through a tragic accident where his car crashes while he was drunk driving and everybody makes it out of the car except his best friend who was killed. After the car crash the high school goes through a mourning of a death of a well-known student. The book goes on to talk about the guilty conscience of Andy and the different point of views of the different characters in the novel.

I've chosen this book because of the high rate of car accidents that are caused by drunk driving and involve majority teens. It is generally acknowledged that the greatest risk of traffic crashes is among teenage drivers. Another reason I chose this book is its reality check for everyone who thinks one decision can’t change your life. Also I have chosen this book for personal reasons. At my school we've had 4 people who were involved in a car crash because of one decision. One girl was ejected from the car through the sun roof and was D.O.A. The others were also ejected from the vehicle but landed on grass but also had injuries. The male driver has been paralyzed and wasn't able to walk across the stage for his graduation due to his injuries. He has lost all memory of what happened when he left school. In this case his parents and friends had to fill him in on what happened. The last person was in a coma for approximately 2 weeks and was unresponsive for 4 weeks. Neither of the students involved had on seat-belts which is what caused them to be ejected from the vehicle. This was the first car crash at our school, in less than a year there was another accident. It was not fatal but it was also tragic. It takes one decision to change your life and I want my peers to know that which is why I've chosen this book. It takes you through what people go through when an accident happens when one fatal decision was made and stimulates your mind. This book should be incorporated into our English class standards simply because my peers, my generation is dying off of fatal choices they choose to make and drinking and driving carelessly is among the top 5 of teen’s death.