Saturday, December 29, 2007

PSA

We're safely home and, well, that fact is more significant than it may appear on first blush. Yesterday afternoon we had a pretty bad car accident on our way back to Salt Lake from Idaho. The roads got icy very quickly and our car rolled. We got very, very lucky and nobody was injured. The accident happened when there weren't any other cars around us and the car rolled off the shoulder (and not into oncoming traffic) in an area where there was a lot of brush and snow, so damage to the car and to us was about as minimal as it gets with a rollover. We were also all wearing seatbelts, and I've never been so thankful for a piece of fabric in my entire life.

People, wear your seatbelts. Make your kids wear their seatbelts. Make your mothers and your sisters and your friends wear their seatbelts. It doesn't matter how good a driver you are or how many times you've driven that stretch of road; an accident can happen in an instant, and frequently there's nothing you specifically do to cause it. I can't even count the number of times we've made that same drive, usually in worse weather conditions than the ones we encountered on Friday. It didn't matter--we hit ice and that was it. If we hadn't been wearing seatbelts (and Luke hadn't been strapped into his carseat) we certainly wouldn't have walked away from the crash without a scratch, and we might not have walked away at all. Wear your seatbelts.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I can only imagine how frightening that must have been. How wonderful that no one sustained any injuries.

My brother survived a head on collision with a MACK truck, with no permanent damage. His survival is exclusively due to his seat belt. I say this only to second your "Wear your seat belt" PSA. Do it, people.

Bea said...

Oh my goodness! I'm so glad everyone was safe - it sounds nasty. Seatbelt advice duly noted.

Bea

Unknown said...

I'm really glad everyone is okay. I tryed to call you after but you phone was dead I think. Try to have a happy new year:)