499110483

Ina Chen

Try as we might to avoid them, accidents happen. Tell us a time when you were involved in an accident. Though everyone tries to avoid accidents, they still happen without prediction. Even so, there is still something people can do when encountering accidents. Dealing with the accidents in a proper way is cardinal while confronting them. Subsequently, accepting and learning from them also play a pivotal part after suffering from the accidents. Accidents are the least thing people would love to see. Despite people cannot evade accidents all the time, handling them in an appropriate way can help reduce the damage caused by the accidents. In the case of Reagan assassination attempt on March 30, 1981, owing to the Secret Service agents excellent ability of dealing with emergency, the former president of the United States, Ronald Reagan fortunately survived the gun shots. At around 2:25 in the afternoon, when Ronald Reagan finished the speech giving to the National Conference of Building and Construction Trades Department of the AFL CIO at the Washington Hilton Hotel and was leaving from the side door, a 26-year-old man, John Hinckley Jr. fired six shots in only two to three seconds toward Reagan. As soon as the first shot was off, the Secret Service agent, Tim McCarthy shielded Reagan with his own body and got hit in the abdomen,

and Hinckley was buried under a mountain of Secret Service agents. Then within only a split second, another Secret Service agent, Jerry Parr quickly grabbed and threw Reagan into the backseat of the awaiting presidential limousine and the car then drove away from the scene of chaos immediately. Thanks to the quick reaction of the well-trained Secret Service agents around him, Reagan did not get a fatal shot. The bullet entered his left lung, which brock a rib of him, but luckily, it was one inch away from his heart. Without Tim McCarthys sacrifice of taking a bullet for Reagan and Jerry Parr s quick decision to redirect the presidential car to George Washington Hospital, Reagan could get a more serious injury. Though people can make efforts to lessen the damage caused by accidents, some are just irretrievable. When the accidents cannot be altered by anything, changing the attitudes is the only thing people can do. Instead of thinking miserably about the accidents, accepting them and moving on can make one feel better. Two years ago, when my brother was still in the third year of Chinese Culture University, he came across a heartbreaking accident. It was a raining winter night, and my brother, Allen was heading back to his dormitory from his friend Ricks birthday party. At that time, Allen was drunk, so his friend, Jack decided to send him back to his dormitory, which is located on Mt. Yangming. However, after dropping Allen at the gate, Jack and his motorcycle got hit by a car on the way home. Though knowing the

ground was slippery due to the rain and he rode carefully, Jack still slipped and fell on the mountain trail. What s worse, the following car could not shun and hit Jack right away. This accident almost killed Jack, but thanks to the endeavors the surgeons in Yang Ming Hospital made, Jack got to keep his life while losing his two legs. This not only depressed Jack greatly but also made Allen feel extremely guilty about it. Nevertheless, Jack is a more optimistic person, so after the accident, he pulled himself together within about six months, but on the contrary, my brother Allen was still stuck in the abyss of guilt. Ever since the accident happened, he lived a corrupt life, and he even tried to commit suicide twice. Not until February in this year did he stop living in such a state of chaos. The core reason for him to get rid of such slump is his acceptance of the accident. This year, he finally accepted the irretrievable fact and started moving on after several talks given by his tutor in college. Allen eventually realized that living in regret can do nothing for Jack but worries him as well as hurts Allen himself. Some accidents are just inevitable, but people still can learn from them rather than being knocked down by them. There is always a lesson behind each accident. Take the one happened on the baseball field in North Little Rock, Arkansas for example. On July 22, 2007, during the ninth inning of a baseball game between the Double-A Tulsa Drillers and Arkansas Travelers, a line drive hit by the catcher of

Drillers, Tino Sanchez struck Mike Coolbaugh, a minor league hitting coach who was standing in the first-base coachs box. The ball fatally hit Coolbaugh in the neck on impact. Then less than an hour after being struck, Coolbaugh was pronounced dead at 9:47 p.m., making him the only coach to ever die on the field in the history of baseball. This accident not only shocked lots of people, but also raised a public attention of the safety of coaches on baseball fields. Before 2008, baseball coaches are not officially asked to wear any protection when standing on fields during baseball games. However, in regard of this accident, in order to avoid the similar tragedy happening again, on November 8, 2007, MLB managers made a regulation that base coaches should wear helmets starting in the 2008 season of both MLB and MiLB. Though Coolbaughs death distressed people greatly, what people learned from the accident is valuable, that is, the rule made after this event also benefit others safety a lot. In this way, the unfortunate accident can somehow become a meaningful event which people would remember and talk about it later in the future. More or less, accidents happen during peoples lives. Yet, it is not how many accidents would be in ones life or how pathetic ones life would be after the accidents that matters; instead, what matter the most are how well one can cope with the accidents and learn from them. Even though encountering accidents, it is still possible that people can live a splendid and enjoyable life.