It was March 13, 2004, around 3 o'clock in the morning and I was driving home from work. I was flying home, as usual and I was tired, sleepy, and not paying attention. I knew these roads well because I drive them at least twice a day, but today was different. I remember looking down at my Speedometer and seeing it register 115 mph, I looked up and saw a corner I knew I was going way too fast for. I immediately slammed on my brakes, but it was too late as I started to slide off the road, leaving four black marks on the road behind me. Try going 90-0 in .5 seconds. OUCH. My car is totaled, my frame bent, I can't open my back doors because the front doors are smashed over them, my trunk wont shut all the way and my radiator, motor and transmission are now combined into one. .
I walked away without a single bruise or scratch and had I not been wearing my safety belt I am 100% sure that I would be dead. I would have been slammed into my windshield and if that didn't kill me, than I'm sure the telephone pole 2 feet in front of me would have.
This is just one of many stories I have involving how I, or someone in my family was saved by a safety belt. So today I am going to give some factual reasons why everyone should take 3 seconds out of their day to buckle up. It might seem inconvenient now, but better to buckle up and possibly save your life than to lose it.
The National HWY Safety Association says that 1 out of 3 people will be involved in a serious accident. Look around, that means that out of the person on your left, the person on your right, and yourself - one of you is going to be involved in a major automobile accident. The Association also says that you, or one of your tablemates is 4x more likely to die while not wearing a seatbelt, than while wearing one.
There are 35,000 deaths a year of people without wearing proper seat restraints, while there are only 17,000 deaths per year with people wearing seat belts.