Car Accidents Happen to Everyone

Car Accidents Happen to Everyone One day, you decide to go hang with your friends and get in the car to go the local skating rink or wherever you hang only about ten minutes down the road. Your little sister decides to come and sits in the back. You click in your seat belt, only because the law mandates it. However, you don’t notice that your little sister in the back is not wearing a seat belt and drive off without checking.

Within two minutes, you approach a stop sign a few blocks down. Like a good, caring citizen would, you stop at it and check to be sure no one is coming from the intersecting road. While you are doing that, you are suddenly thrown forward by some great, unexpected force and then thrown back. From bumping your head off of the steering wheel, you are in extreme agony, because the airbag didn’t deploy. You rest your head on your hand and don’t notice the gigantic, bloody hole in your windshield. The police are there in ten minutes while you are still resting your throbbing head.

When you find out why there is a hole in your windshield, you break down in tears, even though your head is still in extreme pain. If you little sister would just wear her seat belt, she would’ve been alright. The paramedics check your sister out, who is unconscious. You are unable to calm down much due to the trauma of possibly losing your little sister. In about five minutes, the paramedics inform you that your sister has died.

Chances are, even if you are the safest driver on the road, you will eventually be in an accident once in your life, whether it be a minor one or a tragic one. It only takes one wrong move to cause any accident, whether it be talking on your cell phone or forgetting to turn on your blinkers. Accidents can kill you, especially if you are not wearing a seat belt. 63% of all people killed in car wrecks weren’t wearing seat belts, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. If you think you’re too good of a driver to wear a seat belt, you are wrong. If you are indeed a “safe driver”, you might not have even caused the accident, which could have easily killed you.

True Stories

Thrown out of Sunroof

On July 29th, 2009, a woman of Dupont, PA was taking the turnpike when she lost control of her 1998 GMC Jimmy due to speeding. She hit the concrete barrier on the side, and her vehicle rolled several times. She herself was thrown out from her sunroof, and her body ended up on the road. She was killed, because she did not wear a seat belt.

College Students Killed in Violent Wreck

A college student of Larksville, PA was on his way to a concert with his girlfriend and another friend when their vehicle, which was driven by his girlfriend, began rolling. His girlfriend and his friend survived, because they were wearing seat belts. However, he did not wear a seat belt and was thrown from the car. He later died in the hospital.

Teens Ejected from SUV and Killed

In Jacksonville, FL, nine “young people” were headed to the beach after their last day of school when they were in a car wreck that flipped their SUV over several times. The only one believed to be wearing a seat belt was the driver, who was fifteen years old. The rest were ejected from the SUV and are all believed not to have been wearing one. The driver only had minor injuries. The rest either were killed or had critical injuries. Seven of the victims were fifteen, one was sixteen, and the other was seventeen. Two fifteen-year-olds and one seventeen-year-old were killed.

My Story

It was a rainy day in Northeast PA when I had to go to marching band practice to learn the songs for the field show. There appeared to be no one on the road at all, because it was a country road. My mom was driving me to band in her van for a few minutes when she had to turn up a hill. Before she even turned, however, she noticed a car coming and had to make a stop. Before her car completely stopped, however, we suddenly felt the vehicle throw us forward abruptly and then backwards. The car behind us had hit us pretty hard. The driver had to be speeding for how hard we were hit, and she had admitted to not seeing us stopped. If we hadn’t worn our seat belts, I know we would’ve ended up getting thrown through the windshield and probably dead or severely hurt.

The van is completely unsafe to drive. The backlights now no longer work (yes, they were working before,) and neither do the blinkers. The bumper fell almost completely off and was only hanging by a hair. Beneath where the bumper was, it’s wrecked pretty bad.

We had not expected this to happen. Nobody would ever expect this to happen. That is why it is gravely important to wear your seat belt. When you say, “What the sense of hassling with a seat belt? It’s not like I’ll get in a crash anyway”, you are risking your life. 63% of people who were killed in car accidents weren’t wearing seat belts. Also, you are not immortal. While a seat belt may not guarantee that you won’t get hurt, you at least have a much greater chance of survival. It only takes one wrong move to cause a devastating car accident, whether it is your fault or not.

Sources:
ehow.com,
scrantontimes.com,
scrantontimes.com,
msnbc.msn.com

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