I grew up listening to my mom tell me to “be safe” and “buckle up.” I thought that she was just being overprotective and did not want to always listen to her. As I grew up, I learned the hard way that seatbelts do save lives. I am now 26 and a father to a four-year-old boy. I have been in 6 car crashes and my son, believe it or not, has been in 4 – YES, 4. I remember the day when my girlfriend and I were traveling home in the morning when a car pulled across multiple lines of traffic and we t-boned them. They did not adhere to the stop sign and we never saw it coming. My son was in her belly and I near true fear. Later on in his life, we hit a deer and totaled our truck, we got hit by a car turning left – against the turn light – which totaled our car and then my son was in the truck when my mom and stepdad were rear-ended. Each time, my son and I walked away. We were “safe” as we had “buckled up.” I am thankful that I listened to my mom and that my son was also safe, each crash.
