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As we write this, two young people have been killed in local traffic accidents in the past week.
One thing connects the deaths of Montana Haynes, 19, and Tyler Perrow, 13 — they weren’t wearing seat belts in the accidents that occurred just five days apart.
During a third accident this week, the driver and a passenger of a truck that wrecked on Kentuck Road were thrown from the vehicle. Police have charged both men with not wearing seat belts.
The deaths of Haynes and Perrow are shocking because of their young age. Society sees the potential of young people like them, and rightly feels cheated when they are taken too soon, even though it is their families and friends that have paid the highest price.
For that reason, the rest of us might as well acknowledge the lesson of their deaths: Wearing seat belts saves lives.
“This was definitely a survivable crash,” Sgt. Buddy Davis said of Haynes’ accident. “It was a pretty soft landing once she hit that cedar tree.”
Looking back, we can only speculate about why Haynes and Perrow weren’t wearing seat belts. Looking forward, we can use these tragic deaths as a reminder to everyone that seat belts save lives.
How risky is it to be in a car accident when you’re not wearing a seat belt? The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found that in 2007, 54 percent of the 26,642 people who died in accidents weren’t wearing seatbelts. That’s 14,390 lives lost.
Between 1975 and 2008, NHTSA believes that seat belts have saved the lives of 255,115 people age 5 and older. Last year, if everyone in a wreck had been wearing a seat belt, NHTSA estimates that another 4,152 lives could have been saved.
Knowing that doesn’t ease the loss of Haynes and Perrow to those who knew and loved them. But the rest of us can resolve to do better each and every time we get in a car by buckling up. Doing that will keep another local family from going through what the families of Haynes and Perrow have had to endure in recent days.
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Reader Reactions
Dang. We are mostly in agreement here. I agree with the editorial and most of the other posters here (even Rockit and banshee - AIHHHHHHHHH). SEAT BELTS SAVE LIVES!!! Simple as that, there is nothing distasteful in the editorial reminding the public of this simple law. Good editorial r and b. Peace.
I think it is entirely appropriate that the R & B did an editorial on the subject of wearing your seat belt in light of what has happened in our area in the last 2 weeks. It emphasizes the importance of wearing your seat belt and what can happen to you if you don’t. When people ride with me, I make them wear their seat belt or guess what….they can get out of the car and find another ride.
Rockit,
As much as I hate to say it, I AGREE WITH YOU! YAYAYA!!
My late mother, who would be 90 this November, did not wear her seatbelt until the last six years or so of her 66 year life. I remember her telling me to buckle up when I was a kid (and seatbelts were relatively new things in cars in the 1960s). She did not want to buckle up herself because she laboured under the delusion that her steering wheel would somehow “protect” her. This continued even past a time when my brother was in a rather serious car wreck when he was a college student in 1969. Around the time of my mother’s 60th birthday, her physician asked her in the context of doing an annual physical if she used her seatbelt. When she said “no,“ he let her have it (mind you, this was a doctor who may family had been seeing since the 1950s). For some reason, she listened to him and started wearing her seatbelt. She had a minor accident sometime shortly thereafter, not serious, but I was thankful she achieved the “seatbelt epiphany.“
They are guilty, of not wearing a seat belt. We all know seat belts save lives. I can’t believe that a parent can live with their self, knowing that if a child had been wearing a seat belt, it wouldn’t be dead. If Va. did as most other states and gave tickets to parents who don’t seat belt their kids in, or bring charges if a child dies without a seat belt….You wouldn’t have so many dead children. Sorry, but people need to know, that they are guilty. We have to do alot of things, sent kids to school, take them to doc. when sick, keep guns out of reach,give them shots and SEAT BELT THEM IN.
I’m sorry, but I have to say the R&B is absolutely right on this. And, the students at Tunstall Middle School have taken a positive step with their renewed focus on seat belt use through the “seat belt pledge” they have developed to honor their young friend. I believe we should all applaud their efforts to bring something good out of this terrible tragedy.
The simple fact is you are statistically safer when wearing your seatbelt if your vehicle is involved in any kind of crash. That’s not even a debateable point. The editorial board chose this time of loss to remind folks of that fact. It may seem untimely to some, but in light of the recent accidents, fatalities, and potential fatalities, I would suggest it is absolutely appropriate for the R&B to speak out in this fashion, at this time. We can’t do anything to bring back those individuals who were killed. But maybe just a little more infomation will motivate just a few more individuals to buckle up. And that’s a good thing.
Attention Register and Bee:
I find this to be a very disturbing story, almost like the register and bee are “accusing” the victims “guilty” for not wearing a seatbelt.
It is tough for all of the families and friends of these victims. I don’t think they need an update on ‘seatbelt safety’ by the local bee!
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