SEAT BELTS SAVE

[MotherLunsford]

WEAR THEM!!!! Don't screw around! Buckle them EVERY damn time you get in the car!

Last night at the hospital there was a 23 yr old who had been involved in a one car accident. They think she was unrestrained, as she was "ejected from the vehicle" and apparently the only serious injury was to her head, which just happened to be split open like a melon, exposing the brain, and I think they said something about part of the skull/brain being missing. Anyway, it took HOURS for for the highway patrol to find and notify her parents (Right now go to your wallets and put contact info for your next of kin with your drivers license.) at three a.m. Then, just minutes after hearing that his daughter is dead, the father has to call the organ donation center in St.Louis, because his girl, God bless her soul, had signed the Universal Donor card on the back of her drivers license, and the center needed to record the next of kin giving an oral medical history so that the available organs could be "harvested". Had the highway patrol been able to find the parents right away, the heart would have been viable for transplant.

WEAR YOUR SEATBELTS EACH AND EVERY TIME YOU GET IN A MOTOR VEHICLE. THEY ARE THERE FOR YOUR PROTECTION.

Mother

[ March 06, 2004, 01:38 PM: Message edited by: MotherLunsford ]

[STaR101]

MOTHER, I'm very happy u posted this! I don't think people understand how important it is to wear your seatbelt! I CAN NOT get in a car without putting it on, force of habit. Even in the back seat I have it on. I told my aunt that I wear it in the back and she said I was gay, I said "I'll be gay and alive when you're *ss goes flying through the windshield"!

People think that because THEY drive carefully they're ok, NOT SO. There are A LOT of *ssholes on the streets!! The accident isn't always our fault!

It bothers me when people don't wear their seatbelt, whenever people get in my car I DEMAND IT and if they don't like it they can get to walkin!

Here's another story for ya...

My girlfriend had been MIA for a few days (we met on a pitbull site and been friends for 3 yrs now, she's in VA and we never met so via email is the way we keep in touch). She finally wrote to me telling me she was in a horrible accident. She was FINE no scratches NOTHING. BUT her boyfriend was ejected from the car. She had lost control of the car and when the car stopped she looked to her right and he was gone. She got out screaming and crying trying to find him, the people that lived in the houses surrounding them came out to help her and they finally did, he was UNDER the car. He now has a broken back and is wearing a brace, can't do SH*T! Now, can u guess which one DID have the seatbelt on?

PEOPLE BE SAFE!!!!!!!!!

[MotherLunsford]

Star Child, Amen and Amen again!

An unrestrained body in a vehicular accident can fly around with enough force to KILL the belted occupants. Damned if I am going to let that happen to me!

Which reminds me, if you have sh*t lying around in your car, pack it and put it in your trunk. Lot of good it will do you to wear your seat belt if you have freaking tools or canned goods from the grocery store going projectile and penetrating your body.

Be SMART. Be SAFE. Buckle up and Clean up. You will thank yourself for it someday.

Mother

[FocusedOnFitness]

Mother, last week my husband and I flipped (yes, flipped) my Ford Explorer on an icy, slushy back road because he didn't have it in 4x4. He was going 25 miles BELOW the speed limit.

I am living proof seat belts save lives. I've totalled one car, been in this flipping accident and 10 other minor ones. I've never had a scratch. I also had to climb out a window in order to get out of the vehicle this time. When the neighbors came out they said they couldn't believe we were walking around.

By the way, the Ford didn't have a scratch on it either. Another reason why I won't part with my SUV. It saves lives too!

[MotherLunsford]

Emma, when I was seventeen, the huge, heavy old car I was riding in was T-boned (directly on the rear passenger door where I was sitting.) After 114 ft of skid, the other car forced the one I was in to flip on it's roof and rotate. I can remember with perfect clarity every moment from just before impact to when I passed-out as the car was spinning. (The smell of the paint and the metal scraping on the road made me want to puke.) I can remember my girlfriend and I airborne in the backseat, colliding, and switching places. I can remember the ABSOLUTE quiet as the car was suspended in air before it touched back down to spin on it's roof, and thinking "This is what it is like to be dead." Of course the kids in the front seat had seat belts on. They had not a hair out of place. In the back seat, we had some cuts from having to crawl out over the broken glass. Oh, and my shin bones, which to this day, still bear the mark of the horrific bruising (they took on the profile of the Rocky Mountains.) And I remember how much of my hair fell to the floor when I ran my hand through it at the hospital. I had paint and glass fragments in my eyes and ears. No stitches.
Stiff neck the next day. School bright and early Monday morning.

The first thing the cops told my Mom when they called the house was "It is a miracle that they weren't killed."

EVERY time my son leaves the house, I tell him to drive carefully. And EVERY time we get on the highway to go somewhere, we say a prayer for protection.

I just keep thinking about that young woman, so full of promise, and how so many lives are forever changed. Her poor family.

And how a properly functioning seatbelt could have saved her life.

Mother

MISCELLANEOUS
OCCURRED AS VEH 1 TRAVELLED OFF THE LEFT SIDE OF THE ROADWAY, STRUCK A
GUARDRAIL AND OVERTURNED EJECTING THE DRIVER. PRONOUNCED DEAD AT THE
HOSPITAL BY CORONER LARRY SWINFARD NEXT OF KIN NOTIFIED
INVESTIGATED BY TPR G DUBOIS 484

[ March 06, 2004, 08:12 PM: Message edited by: MotherLunsford ]

[FocusedOnFitness]

It is so strange how accidents happen so fast, yet time stands still when you are in them. My mother lost her youngest brother in a car accident back in the 50s. All her brothers and sisters were in the car ... no seat belts. He was 3 years old, shot out a window and the car landed on him. I wear mine no matter what.

These stories are so chilling, Mother!

[STaR101]

EMMA!! I'm so glad ya'll are alright!!!!

[culbygirl]

Thanks you so much for posting that!! It amazes me the number of folks you pass while driving who do not have their seatbelt on; not sure if they're too lazy to latch it or just too ignorant. My dad instilled in us from the time we were old enough to be out of carseats, BUCKLE UP!! Unfortunately that wasn't something he was able to teach his youngest brother; he was killed in a car wreck at the age of 33, leaving behind a wife and 11 year old twin daughters, and he wan't wearing a seatbelt and was thrown through the windshield. The coroner told my dad that had he been wearing a seatbelt he would've lived. Other than the massive head injuries that killed him, the only thing wrong with him was a broken leg from impact. Such a shame....and over 12 years later, it still hurts. PEOPLE PLEASE USE YOUR SEATBELTS!

[*Beth*]

I agree completely. I've been fortunate and never been in an accident *knocks on wood* but every time I get in my vehicle I always buckle up and actually obsess over the way other people drive when I'm on the road.

I saw on the news tonight tho that a woman was driving her 3 children 10, 8 , and 3 , she lost control and hit one of those center cement things in the freeway. The 3 yr old somehow got ejected from his carseat and went out the window. Sadly he died and I'm not sure if he was actually buckled in or not.
I hate hearing stories like this its so sad. It makes me wanna grab my kids and hold them tight.

[missus]

Thanks Mother. I can be a true witness for this. Everyone here should read this post. A couple were on 36 last week eastbound, and a fool was also on eastbound, but he was going west. Get thepic? He ended up ramming the coupld who had seatabelts on and another vehicle. The other vehicle the driver had her seatbelt on, her bf did not, his fuenral is tomorrow.

My car was totalled back in 1989 (drunk driver), I sustained many injuries, the seatbelt saved me. Never, never do any of us go without our seatbelts.

Thank you Mother. BTW, how are you doing these days girl. You haven't been posting. GEt back up in here.

Missus

BE BLESSED

[Eva got-a-big-ole-butt]

Mother,

I am the biggest HARD@SS when it comes to seatbelt use that you will probably ever see. My husband laughs at me cause I even put it on if I'm just going down our driveway to the mailbox & back (it's a 350 foot drive - so yes, from time-to-time I use the car, especially if it's cold & I've got the kids with me).

2 of my cousins were in an accident when I was a baby - they were teens on a joyride - the one driving's head went through the windsheild & the other was partially ejected. The driver was in a coma for two weeks & is brain damaged & the passenger has been parylized (sp) from the neck down for the past 28 years - he has a son & 4 grandsons & has never been able to hold or play with ANY OF THEM!!!

My losses don't end there - on the night of my 20th birthday one of my best friends was killed in an accident. She was ejected from her car & landed next to a tree. The car kept rolling & pinned her against it killing her.

SEATBELTS ARE NO JOKE!!! IF THEY HAD BEEN USED MY COUSIN'S BOY & HIS SONS WOULD'VE HAD A BETTER LIFE WITH HIS DAD. MY OTHER COUSIN WOULD'VE HAD THE LIFE THAT WAS SO PROMISING TO HIM & MY FRIEND WOULD BE ALIVE TO SEE THE DAUGHTER I NAMED AFTER HER!!!!!