Tuesday’s column: Buckle up — it can save your life
Hannah Long, 15 | From Facebook
The tragic victim this past weekend was Hannah Marie Long, of Vinton, and the accident that claimed her life happened early Sunday morning in Boones Mill. Last weekend, it was Lewis Allen Dickenson, who died in a Bedford County crash. Like Long, he was a 15-year-old student at Liberty High School.
Back in May, the deceased were Jarrett Chance Taylor, 26; his father, Randy C. Taylor, 60, both of Rocky Mount; and Donald D. Conner, 52, of Floyd. The three men were among five people involved in a four-vehicle accident on U.S. 220 in Boones Mill.
Besides their traffic-related deaths, another thing the people named above had in common is none of them was wearing a seat belt.
There are a lot of questions that still need to be answered about the circumstances leading up to the fatal wrecks that killed Long and Dickenson. But now isn’t the time to ask those in a newspaper column.
Too many facts are still unknown. Raising them won’t bring back the victims and it would hurt the surviving family members, who are already hurting enough. Give them some time to grieve, for Pete’s sake.
But the question of seat belt use is not one of those. Hundreds of millions of people in this country slide into a driver or passenger seat every day. And the statistics on seat belts and survivability in car crashes are quite clear.
The odds you will survive a traffic accident are much better if you’re wearing a seat belt. Consider these facts furnished to me Monday by Kristin Nevels, a spokeswoman for the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety:
READ THE REST OF THIS COLUMN HERE.
October 16, 2012 - 6:00 AM
I wish you wrote more columns like this. This is great service to the valley albeit an obvious one. But it’s astounding how simple it is and how it saved lives.
No question about it. Simply heartbreaking to have young people (or anyone for that matter) leave this earth in such a fashion. Would it be too insensitative to plead with parents and guardians to also impose reasonable restrictions on teens activities. In my youth both parents frequently commented, “Bubba, You have no business being out at that time of night!” And “that time” was usually 10 or maybe 11 PM. So many are lost. Why does it have to be?
While I don’t think it should be mandatory that adults wear seatbelts, 15 year olds shouldn’t have that choice. Just when I think the overwhelming majority of our youth wear seatbelts, I see something like this.
I bet the fad of driving with the seat leaning way back ridiculously far barely being able to reach the steering wheel contributes to not wanting to wear a seatbelt. That seems logical since the belt would be suspended out in front of the driver as opposed to across his/her chest and out of the field of vision.
Amen to that. I don’t understand why so many people don’t wear their seat belts. It just boggles the mind.
Dan, thanks for writing this. I was in a pretty bad accident myself earlier this year that was featured in the paper. Were it not for seatbelts, I don’t think I would be here today (nor my wife and daughter). It’s such a simple thing to do (buckle up) with real data to support doing so. I just don’t understand why anyone would take the chance of riding without one anymore.
I consider myself a lucky man to have raised two kids in Franklin County have them both survive to adult hood. Seems that every year a student, friend, or neighbor died on those crooked back roads, and the sorrow wrought by this fact of rural life was a too frequent visitor to the high school while I taught there.
Kids, wear your seat belts. It could save your life and spare your parents the grief of tremendous loss.
Hasn’t it been mandatory to wear a seat belt since the mid-1970′s? Which would be before some of those deceased listed above were even born? It takes less than five seconds to buckle a seat belt.
No excuse.
‘It’s uncomfortable’ So is dying in a car wreck.
‘I just forgot’ No, you just risked dying in a car wreck. On purpose. You remembered to put the keys in the ignition, right? How can you not remember to wear a set belt?
‘I was in a hurry’. Did you take time to close the car door? Putting on a seat belt takes no longer than closing the car door. It seems people are able to do that, but not the seat belt? Seriously?
It’s been the law for DECADES. DECADES.
No excuse.
You make the decision to not wear a seat belt? You increase your chances of dying.
No excuse.
Well said, Dan.
Very good column, Dan…and the statistics are telling. When I review crash reports during a safety study, a large majority of the fatalities are due to 2 reasons: alcohol, or no seatbelt…sometimes, both. But lack of seatbelt usage was a far larger factor for fatalities than alcohol use. Seatbelt usage is what kept my dad and sister from being killed in a bad wreck on I-64 in Norfolk back in the early 90′s, when his Blazer hydroplaned in a poor drainage area. He lost control, hit drier pavement, and the vehicle lurched hard right, getting slammed by a truck. They thankfully didn’t roll, but the impact was severe and had they been ejected onto the interstate, or even tossed around in the Blazer, they most certainly would not still be alive today.
Sure, some wrecks are so severe, particularly very high-speed crashes (which is why I dislike speed limits over 55-60), that the shear forces of momentum and kinetic energy dissipation simply cannot be overcome through safety devices in a vehicle. Rolling a vehicle travelling at 70-80 mph is one of the most severe crashes a person can experience, and they are hard to survive unless you have a Nascar-style seat, harness, and head restraint system. Almost any crash with a fixed object, which results in extreme deceleration from a high rate of speed to zero, or near zero, instantly, are also very difficult to survive at higher speeds.
But seatbelts, airbags, and modern vehicle design all help. Every time I get into my car, the first thing I do after shutting the door is put on the seatbelt, and make sure everyone in the car with me does likewise (my wife is equally as adamant). I won’t start the car or move an inch until then. It would be terribly irresponsible of me to not utilize all safety equipment in my car, because if I were to be in a crash and suffer a serious injury, or death, as a result…it would leave my wife in a terrible spot, and I won’t do that to her. And I sure as hell am not going to have to explain to the family of a friend who rides with me that they died in my car during a wreck, in which I knew they were not buckled up and still hit the road anyway.
Don’t be stupid…buckle up, every time.
Dan, this is a horrible tragedy and my prayers go out to all the families. You gotta wear your seatbelt.
Why should it not be mandatory for adults to wear seat belts, yet mandatory for teens?
Can ANYONE provide a single legitimate reason why every person riding in a vehicle should not wear a seat belt?
#2 “Would it be too insensitative to plead with parents and guardians to also impose reasonable restrictions on teens activities.”
Agreed, Bubba. Out late with older youngsters is a bad combo. Although kids will also sneak around their parents.
We should pass a law that says seat belt use is mandatory.
There are so many variables while driving, clicking your seatbelt is an easy way to assert some control. It takes half a second and could save your life.
I don’t get the “it’s uncomfortable” part. If you need to do something that requires more mobility than is afforded by a seatbelt, pull over.
Teenagers think nothing bad will ever happen to them. My heart goes out to the families.
A friend of mine refuses to wear his seat belt. He drove 12 hours from Indiana holding the seat belt over his shoulder so he could try to convince the police he was wearing it if he was stopped. I was incredulous.
I don’t know of anything that could hurt as much as losing a child. My heart goes out to these parents.
Last update the driver was still not out of the woods.
I’d be ok with it not being mandatory for adults not to wear seatbelts, but it’s logical that health insurance should not cover injuries sustained in an accident in which the injured wasn’t wearing one. Why should stupid people litter up the insurance pool and force the rest of us to pay higher rates in compensation?
Tragic circumstances. Good column.
So sad…good column, lousy story.
I was lucky enough at the age of 17 to be wearing a seatbelt. I hydroplaned on a wet road and flipped my truck 3 times. I walked away from that wreck. Had I not been wearing my seatbelt, I’m sure that my parents would have had to bury a daughter. Seatbelt usage is something I will NOT waiver on in my cars. All of my children are buckled prior to the car ever moving. No amount of whining about seatbelts will get them out of wearing them.
My heart goes out to the families who have lost loved ones. No amount of woulda, shoulda, coulda’s will bring back these young people. My hope is that this will be a teaching tool for all those teens who still think they are invincible!
If you’re a parent, be a good example to your children and buckle up. It’s common sense.
Dan, thank u so much for the Seatbelt column. I agreee with the blogger
above. No seatbelt..no insurance payoff. Why should I protect myself and my passangers, then pay for someone to kill themselves and their family …or mine?
First and foremost, the parents, family & friends of these two young people have my sympathy.
Our two oldest sons were both involved in separate very serious auto accidents in their early 20s. The oldest was wearing his seat belt and it saved his life. He still had serious injuries, but survived and wears his seat belt all the time. Our middle son didn’t have his seat belt on, was ejected from the vehicle suffered very serious injuries, it took him 6 months to rehab sufficiently to go back to work. He will pay, for the rest of his life, for his injuries.
I have deep respect for those who believe strongly in personal freedom & responsibility. Nonetheless, it is a no brainer to me that wearing seat belts should be required.
Again, for those who posted on here that it would be ‘okay’ for adults to not be required to wear seat belts – i.e. they, Kristen #17 & John Wilburn #3, I repeat the question.
WHY do you think it is ‘okay’ for adults to not be required to wear seat belts? Especially when you also say teens SHOULD wear them?
That kind of mentality is why people die in car wrecks because they weren’t wearing their seat belts. You condone the willingness to court death for refusing to spend 3 seconds helping to save your life.
So, be specific – WHY is it okay?
crooked road:
11.”Why should it not be mandatory for adults to wear seat belts, yet mandatory for teens?
Can ANYONE provide a single legitimate reason why every person riding in a vehicle should not wear a seat belt?”
crooked road, should it be legal to smoke? How about for consenting promiscuous adults to have unprotected sex? What about binge drinking? The point being, there are all kinds of risky and unhealty behaviors that aren’t a good idea for ANYONE to engage in, but the government should NOT make those decisions for us. As for those under legal age wearing seatbelts, there are lots of things where they don’t have the same degree of liberty. They aren’t allowed to smoke or drink either and of course they have unprotected sex; these things are still going to happen… just like not wearing their seatbelts will happen.
I had a friend die in a nasty rollover wreck when I was in high school. None of us wore our seat belts at that time, but I started. It’s smart to wear your seat belt and I always do. BUT…..The insurance issue aside, it’s not the government’s job to protect us from the known risky decisions we make.