As a kid growing up in a small town, you don’t really think about your seat belt as the most important thing riding in a car or truck. In those times, seat belts were enforced and a ticket followed, but not today. I remember riding with my uncle and mawmaw to town, and they didn’t wear a seat belt, of course, all their lives they never worried about it. As I grew older, times changed and changed quick. The states were coming up with new state laws as people grew ever reckless driving. In due time, seat belt laws became stricter and stricter, and today it is a serious offense to not wear a seat belt. Not severe as other things but definitely as important. Fast forward to 2016 and I learn just how important seat belts are.
In my years of growing, different people, some I knew and most I didn’t, would not wear their seat belt and not be here breathing today. But it never clicks and it never hits you as important when you have someone you know that has passed away…and their life could’ve been saved by wearing a seat belt. You can see a picture on the news or Facebook and see how crushed a car is, but it doesn’t seem real to a certain extent. Looking at the damage, you can get that feeling of, "How can this happen?" You ask yourself, "Why did this happen?" Everything you do, every decision you make matters and literally it could mean life or death. I learned that Friday morning on the way to work.
Early Friday morning I woke up, got ready and left to go to McDonald’s. Man was I excited for a bacon, egg and cheese biscuit and sweet tea. I could’ve went one way, but went another. As I was driving, a guy pulled out in front of me and I had maybe 30 feet of stopping distance in-between us, which wasn’t enough. At that point all I had time for was to brace myself because he didn’t have enough speed to beat me to safety, and then it happened. I hit his truck, and I don’t exactly remember after the impact. I do remember the impact, and then staring at my steering wheel and forcing my door open to get out and catch my breath. I called my dad first, and the rest is a longer story for another day.
Fast forward, I made it back to my apartment, my vehicle is totaled and I’m sore all day. I sit throughout the day texting my friends and family. I replay the moment right before impact with a scary thought in the back of my head, "What if I wasn’t wearing my seat belt?" I was asking myself so many "what if" questions. I couldn’t imagine the sadness my family and friends would’ve went through. I know in this few years I have lost two friends in car accidents and I don’t want to add to that number. All day yesterday, I thought about what if I never saw my family again, some of my friends that mean the world to me and a few that are my world. I thought about what if I never got to see them again. What if I never got to say the things I need to say. There’s so many questions and things I could’ve never known had I not be wearing my seat belt. I know I hate seat belts and I mean who doesn’t? But if I could think of a better reason to wear mine always, surviving a wreck is good enough for me. So the next time you don’t wear a seat belt, please reconsider. Take it from me, it literally could save your live.
