It’s Better To Click It Than Regret It

A bright sunny afternoon----the kind of day everything was going so well. The chores of the day seemed so effortless. My wife and I were preparing dinner for our usual Tuesday evening dinner with our grandsons, when the phone rang. My wife answered the phone and suddenly she had an ashened look on her face. Our daughter had been in a serious accident. As we rushed out of the house to go to the accident scene, all kinds of thoughts raced through our heads---how badly was she injured, what if she were killed, how would we tell our grandsons. The thoughts were endless.

After a short trip to the accident scene that seemed to take forever, we finally were able to get through the traffic and park the car. We jumped out of the car and ran to the wreckage. We saw our daughter still in the drivers seat. Two other vehicles involved in the accident surrounded her vehicle and medical personnel surrounding her. Oh my God, we thought the worst! As we got closer we could see she was conscious and speaking. She was dazed and bruised, but thank God she was okay.

After discussing the facts with the police, we understood how the accident had happened. Our daughter was stopped at an intersection waiting for the light to turn green. When the light turned green she accelerated into the intersection, and that’s when she was broad sided by a vehicle running the red light at a high rate of speed. The point of impact was on the passenger side door. Looking at the vehicle with the roof partially detached, the side caved in and the front end totally gone, it’s a wonder how anyone survived. Police officials said that had our daughter not been wearing her seatbelt, her injuries would have been extremely severe, or worse, she being killed.

I know in this day and age we as adults are looked at as “old fogies” when we tell teenagers and young adults the importance of wearing seat belts. This kind of advice doesn’t resonate with young people as it would if we were discussing the latest fad. But as responsible adults we must continue to provide this kind of advice out of love for them. If we can convince them that the latest statistics on the safety of wearing seat belts are that 63% of people killed in car accidents were not wearing seat belts. Also safety officials attribute more fatalities than any other traffic safety-related behavior, to the failure to wear a seat belt.

We hope and pray that no one else has to experience the frightening apprehension that we experienced, but, we know that’s not reality. We just hope the advice that we can offer our younger generation about the importance of wearing seat belts, will reduce the impact of future accidents.