Embrace Life

Seat belts. Still people do not get the importance. Last week a very dear friend of my niece's was in a car wreck. No extinuating circumstances, no drugs, no alcohol, seasoned driver but a wet road a chain of events proved to be a dire combination. Four college age girls one minute out for an innocent drive, the next two girls ejected and one with so many broken bones and injuries she needed cpr from her friend to keep her life. Upon hearing this my college age son, who is about to embark on medical school to be a physical therapist rattled off the amount of recuperation time and therapy those injuries would require. This particular girl we were discussing had just graduated college and was about to start Pharmacy school and now will spend the next year learning to do the things she probably took for granted the day before.

Now you would think this would be a good lesson to the importance of seat belts and how in just the blink of an eye your whole world could change. I took that opportunity to reinforce my feelings and how fortunate this girls parents are that she is still alive. I felt good that at least this horrible tragedy was at least providing me with a teachable moment, that is until the following week when that very same son came home carrying a crumpled license plate. He then began to explain the crew he was working with was coming home on the highway pulling a trailer full of equipment when the tire blew. The steering locked up and the truck trailer proceeded across a lane of traffic and into the ditch where it hit two signs before stopping. Now, there were several variables that could have made this another tragic scenario, such as neither the truck nor trailer rolled, there was no opposing traffic and the signs glanced off the truck and went over it instead of through it. Instead the driver and all passengers were safe. After hearing of his harrowing ordeal, I said, "so you did have on your seat belt, right?" and to my dismay and chagrine, the reply, "no, I was in the backseat."

We can preach and teach but ultimately those we love have to come to their own conclusion that seat belts are important and save lives. Please pass this video on to those you love and maybe, just maybe it will make a difference and slowly we can saves lives, one seat belt at a time.

Buckle up. Embrace Life.