Seat Belts could have saved these lives

[Tom]

The day after Thanksgiving, three families in South Georgia, friends and customers, were devastated by the loss and grief of their children.  There was no rambunkshesness envolved, only a van drifting into a passing pickup that contained the 17 year old daughter of a couple who had just built a new home on a new farm, the 14 year old grandson of the local tractor dealer and the younger brother of local fuel company manager.

The driver lost control of the truck as he avoided the van and the truck rolled when it hit the shoulder of the road and the ditch.  The 17 and 14 year old children were ejected and killed.  The driver is in a state of depression and guilt that will follow him the rest of his life and some feel may endanger it.

They didn't have on their seat belts. They had just gone for a short ride and would be right back.  They were less than 2 miles from home.

Life is but a wisp of smoke in a hurricane.
Hardly their long enough to be seen.
As it's caught in the wind,
dissipates and disappears,
it gently touches  things around.
Only a few will know,
only a few will show,
that it was ever there.
Then it's gone.

[Bibbyman]

I guy I worked with had one daughter that had just turned 16 and another would the next year.  They were both active in cheerleading, basketball, band and such in school.  Being a generous dad,  he went out and bought them a new Ford Escort.  When he was telling about it at work,  I asked him; "Don't you love those girls?"  He asked what I meant by that.  I told him I wouldn't put my teenage girls in such a flimsy car.  I'd go out and get them about a 10-year-old Olds 88 or the like.  He thought I was nuts.  

A couple of months later I really felt bad.  He came in on a Monday telling that the girls were all right,  only a trip to the hospital with a broken nose and some cuts and bruises.

They were going down a narrow county road and topped a rise the same time as a ton PU.  They both slammed on the brakes and couldn't have been doing over 10mph when they hit.  But the bumper of the truck managed to reach the windshield of the Escort.

Fortunately,  both girls were wearing their seat belts.

[Jeff]

Thanks Bib.

My daughter recently turned 16 and will be driving solo soon. I will take your advice. Your totally right about the big cars. My son is now almost 20 and I never felt concerned as I do with the prospect of Stacy on the roads. Not that I don't think she will do a good job, because she has proven herself to be a good driver with her limited experience so far, I just have this worry for some reason I did not have with Jeremy.

[DanG]

This is a SERIOUS subject, guys.  Having been a parent for a lot of years, now, my worst nightmares are of losing one of my kids.   Safety rules, such as wearing seatbelts, have a way of becoming ingrained in the mind, if they are repeated often enough.  I used to think all those weekly safety meetings at work were a crock, till I noticed myself scanning the floor at the mall, looking for slip-trip hazards, and kicking little objects under the counters at the grocery store. I am required, under threat of dismissal, to wear my seatbelt in my work truck. It has become such a habit that I feel nekkid without it.  PREACH IT, folks. It works.

[Ron Scott]

An accident just south of here Saturday on State H-131 where three fellows in their early 20's left the road in a pick-up truck, rolled 5 times, all were thrown from the vehicle.

No seat belts were worn. The 22 year old driver was killed, the other two have serious injury. Why didn't they wear seat belts??? They're even law here.

[CHARLIE]

Once, when my daughter had her Learner's Permit (she could drive with a licensed adult inthe car), we were on a gravel road going too fast. I told her to slow down, that gravel roads can be like driving on greased BB's.  She replied, "My friend Heidi drives down these roads a 60mph all the time."  I told her that she was not Heidi and to slow down.

The first evening after she got her driver's license, when she was 16, she borrowed my wife's Tempo to go pick up Heidi and then go bowling.  Heidi lives on a farm, thus a gravel road.  About 15 minutes later we received a phone call that my daughter was in a rollover. We went down that gravel road and there was the car with 4 wheels skyward. My daughter was physically OK because she had thought to put on her seatbelt. The sheriff measured her skid marks and estimated her speed at.......60mph. She hit loose gravel and that was all she wrote.  The car was totaled, but more importantly my daughter survived and learned a lesson the hard way.

I always put on my seatbelt and what's more, if I'm driving, the car or truck doesn't move until everyone else is buckled up also.

[swampwhiteoak]

I never used to wear a seatbelt.  Then, I got a job where they made me, and pretty soon it just came naturally.  

A few months ago I learned that an old college friend of mine was in an accident.  He drove off the side of a mountain road in Washington state.  The woman he was with wore her seatbelt and walked away.  He did not.  He is still in rehab, but by the doctors' best guesses, he will never walk again.  He was not the type to ever stay still and was always talking, moving, running, or something.  Because he didn't wear his seatbelt, he will never be the same again, but then again at least he is still alive.

[Bill Johnson]

There is no question about it seat belts save lives.
I know that for a fact.
In the mid 70's I was driving out to a bush operation in early December, the bush roads were snow packed but other wise not too bad. I was just coming out of an "S" bend when the loaded logging truck entered it on my side of the road.
We both tried to avoid the collision but he was too far over to miss me completely.
I took out the drivers side headlight, fender, mirror door handle and back fender on my truck.
He scratched the paint on his front fender and the front of his log trailer.
While we were fortunate not to be travelling too fast the seat belt at least kept me from being bounced around inside the truck and I believe it prevented serious injury.
I wear my seatbelt every time I get behind the wheel, you never know what's coming around the bend at you.