Why you should ALWAYS wear a set belt
Accident 11/24/2007
See that big streak across my chest and shoulder? THAT'S why you and everyone in the car with you should always wear your seat belt.
Because you never know when some idiot is going to run a stop sign across a four lane divided highway when you're going 60 miles an hour and can't stop, so you have no choice but to plow into them head on.
This happened to me this afternoon. With five children in the van with me. My oldest niece was sick with strep, so my sis-in-law asked if I could take three of hers with me to the family festivities today. Their fifth one was riding with his dad in the truck some miles behind us.
Luckily, we were all securely belted in so nobody was seriously hurt. Since my corner of the van took the brunt of the impact, my body took the brunt of it, too. I have that lovely seat belt burn on my chest, I have bloody burns that you don't get to see across my lap, my sternum hurts like the very devil himself squashed it and I have a compression fracture on my T-3 vertebra.
In short, I feel like I got hit by a truck. Oh wait, it was a Jeep Wrangler. A dark blue or black Jeep Wrangler running through stoplights in the growing dusk that is 4:30 in December. I couldn't tell you if they had headlights on or not. I barely saw them before we collided. They rolled over a couple of times. The airbags popped out down my side of the van. I have a little cut on my chin - I guess from the air bag. My glasses came off my face. Thankfully somebody finally found them before I got carted off to the hospital. The kids all have seat belt burns. My 3-year-old nephew got a cut on the top of his head. All we can guess is that the air bag hit him when it popped out because he was in the very back seat all strapped in his car seat.
I don't even really remember getting out of the van. I just remember the crunch, the kids started screaming, smoke was coming out of the dashboard and all I could think was I had to get everybody out in case the van blew up. So I got my blind self out of the car, staggered around to Sabrina's door and started hauling out screaming kids. Poor babies were all scared to death. So I was for that matter. Luckily it didn't take long for the EMS guys to get there. My neck and back hurt so much they took us all to the hospital. The longer I lay strapped to that blasted board the more I hurt. Somebody finally had the common sense to give me pain meds. They CT scanned me and X-rayed me. Diagnosis is OW and the compression fracture which will mean more OW for the rest of my natural born life.
cotharyus is fine. He didn't go today since he's still under the weather. That worked out nicely, though, because he was able to come get us at the hospital.
On the bright side - I don't have to worry about getting the dent out of the back gate anymore! (I try to find the good in everything, being Pollyanna like I try to be.) The van is totaled. The front is completely smashed in.
So - if any of you don't wear your seat belts I would strongly advise you to start NOW. No, wait, YESTERDAY. If I hadn't been wearing my seat belt I would've gone through the windshield most likely and I'd be dead now - or in the hospital seriously injured. The doctors and nurses all told me how much worse it could've been for all of us if we hadn't been buckled up. Let this be your PSA - wear your seat belt. They're not kidding that it could save your life. You might hurt like all hell when you're done, but at least you'll be alive.
Now I'm going to go try to work up the nerve to take a shower which will involve water and soap getting in all these seat belt burns and will also involve moving and stretching muscles that don't particularly want to move right now. I could go to bed without a shower, but I feel all grimy and I know it'll help.