I was distressed to read that one of my college profs died in August, thrown from his vehicle and NOT wearing a seatbelt.
Dick Caram taught English and creative writing at Stephens College when I was there, and I took his poetry writing class. He was a good teacher and a good guy, and a talented writer, and it is a MASSIVE waste.
I don't want to hear ONE more story about any smart person dying for such a stupid reason, so WEAR YOUR BLOODY SEATBELTS, friends. Got that?!
9 comments:
What Ruth said.
And your motorcycle helmets, too.
Moments after posting the above, I remembered what caused me to have such a hard line on motorcycle helmets. In a strange parallel to Ruth's post, I, too, lost a teacher (albeit a high school teacher, who I adored) in an accident - a motorcycle accident. He wasn't wearing a helmet.
And your equestrian helmets, too. I almost lost Mrs. Fort before we had a Fort when she fell from horseback and the stumbling horse kicked her in the head on the way down.
She was in intensive care for three weeks with an iffy prognosis (co-incidentally, another woman with a nearly identical injury from a fall from a horse came into intensive care the next day... and died within the week). There are still three months of Diane's life that she doesn't remember at all.
A helmet almost certainly would have prevented the subdural hematoma.
I am the family nag: "Seat belts????" I say at the beginning of every drive in the car. Reluctantly, the others will then click theirs on. It's an epidemic out here -- very few people wear their seatbelts. Even after one of our nephews nearly died in a crash -- when he was NOT wearing a seatbelt.
Seems like a no-brainer to me. Especially since that's how you can end up if you aren't wearing a seatbelt when the accident happens -- no brain, that is.
My rule for the kids was simple: If you are caught not wearing a seatbelt, you are banned from riding in that car for a month. Second offense in the same car, you are banned from that car for life. Never had to use that second part -- 'specially after that month where they weren't allowed to ride with Grandma and Grandpa. (And I most certainly don't mean the Grandma on my side of the family.)
Non-negotiable.
Remember when there were no seatbelts?
Whenever I would ride in the passenger seat of his car, even well into his 70's, my Dad would reach his right hand out in front of me whenever he had to brake suddenly. It was a muscle-memory, I'm sure, from long ago to keep me from thumping into the dashboard.
My mother did the same thing, Sherwood. I'd get a blow in the mid-section even after I felt much too mature to appreciate it.
ROFL Sherwood!
A radio host I used to listen to a while back...not him, some other guy....told the story about hitting the brakes and reflexively reaching over to restrain a passenger.
Who just happened to be a female co-worker.
They were both old enough and mature enough to understand why it happened and then let it go.
I can recall riding with my grandparents to Tennessee to visit the family. I used to sleep all sprawled out on the back seat. My granddad would hit the brakes and send me flying onto the floor. I would then complain to grandmom who would tell granddad to take it easy.
His only response was to chuckle.
Eventually I learned to sleep on the floor.
--
Regards,
Dann
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