Dear People Who Don’t Wear Seatbelts,
It’s your choice whether or not to take 10 seconds out of your day to put your seatbelt on when you get into a car. I get it. But if it wasn’t for wearing a seatbelt, my life would be much different. I could be dead. But you may not know me, so why should you care? According to the CDC, “young adults (18-24) have the highest crash-related injury rates of all adults,” and “seat belts reduce serious crash-related injuries and deaths by about half.” You may be thinking, but I won’t get in a car crash, I’m a good driver. So let me tell you a little story.
During Spring Break of my junior year of high school, I was going on college tours just like most people my age. I needed to log my driving hours to get my license, so I was driving in my family’s car to visit schools with my dad and my younger sister. I felt comfortable behind the wheel, and everything was fine. Until it wasn’t, and it happened so fast. No matter how many times I have relived that moment in my mind, I still can’t remember all of the details; it’s a blur of screaming, spinning and dust.
Here’s what I know: It was a dry, sunny day. I was driving in the right lane of a two-lane highway, surrounded by 18-wheelers. I felt the car tug one way, and I overcorrected to stay in my lane. The car started spinning, one of the back windows slamming into a road sign. I remember screaming for my dad, who was in the passenger seat, and seeing dust flying up on the windshield. Eventually, the car landed on its side on the shoulder of the highway. My foot was still on the gas. How did that happen? I thought to myself. I had been going below the speed limit. I wasn’t distracted; I wasn’t playing with the radio. I was a safe driver.
Cars stopped to see if we were okay. An ambulance that was behind us stopped to help us out of the car. The police arrived. The car was on its side, so I had to climb out one of the doors, but my legs felt weak so the people from the ambulance helped me out of the car. Since everyone in the car was wearing a seatbelt, nobody was hurt. Sore and covered in glass, yes. But not injured and not dead. I felt tremendous guilt, but also tremendously lucky. I couldn’t catch my breath or stop crying, even when the tow truck driver laughed about how minivans are so sturdy and safe, or when the police officer tried to joke with me about how fast I was driving.
Since the car was totaled, it’s hard to say why or how the crash happened. We think a tire popped and caused the car to drift. I was a minor at the time, so I avoided a “reckless driving” charge and was given “failure to maintain control of the vehicle.” I had to go to court a few months later; the judge reminded me that I was very lucky, and a lot of people in that situation aren’t. I completed my mandatory driver’s improvement course, and passed my driver’s test. Looking back on it, I should have slowed down at the first drift and stopped on the side of the highway. But it happened so quickly, that there was no time to think. What’s done is done.
I don’t remember putting on my seatbelt that day. It was just habit. A habit that saved my life, and the lives of two of my family members. I always remind people who don’t put on their seatbelts that I might not be alive if not for wearing one that day. My family members were saved from harm because they were buckled in. It took a while to be able to talk about the accident openly, but I use it now as a personal reminder for anyone I am in the car with of the importance of wearing a seatbelt. If you don’t wear a seatbelt, if it’s not a habit for you, it’s your choice (but it is illegal in some states). But having it as a habit can save lives. Remember that.
Sincerely,
One of the Lucky Ones