a tragic accident

Life can change forever in the blink of an eye. I think this is something we all know, but push it to the furthest recess of our minds until some tragedy reminds us. That little “reminder” came to me yesterday morning in the form of an email from a friend, who also happens to be the safety director at my company (the irony in that is not lost on me). After starting some reports to print, I opened up my email, noticed that I had quite a few in my “In” box and began going thru them. I noticed the one from M (don’t want to use his name without his permission, so I’ll use his initial), checked the subject line – it said simply “Seatbelt”. I figured that being the safety guru here that there had been someone busted in a company vehicle (probably one of my guys) not wearing their seatbelts. It had a couple pictures attached…maybe an accident at another facility owned by my company?? Hmm. So imagine my surprise when I opened the email, which was addressed to all the department heads and myself, to read the following:

Please take a look at these photos. This is the reason the Safety Manager reminds everyone about a seatbelt in company vehicles. If you get in the habit here at work it will help you get in the habit away from work as well. That is what happened to me. I was bad about not wearing my seatbelt until I got into the safety department and started enforcing the company policy. It made me get in the habit away from work and I believe it saved my life yesterday. Please share these photos with your people and help me spread the message about the importance of seatbelts here at work as well at home. Thanks

Accident??? M was in a wreck?!?! And then I opened the pictures…..I don’t know really what I was expecting (I think my brain had not processed the part about “saved my life yesterday”) to see but it certainly was NOT what I saw. Flabberghasted and completely stunned probably would touch on it, but it was so much more. I hollered at my boss in his office (yes, hollered…at my boss) to see if he’d seen the email and pics. That’s when he related to me what he had heard so far….I’m pretty sure at that point my eyes were as big as hubcaps (you youngsters who don’t know what a hubcap is, ask your dad or grandfather) and if you had breathed in my general direction I would have fallen out of my chair. Truly. Shocked me to my core. The man in the other car had been killed on impact. Dead. Just like that. And someone I know would now have to live with the knowledge (not to mention seeing what he saw) that he had ended someone’s life. The accident was not M’s fault, nor was it the fault of the other driver…there honestly was NOTHING either of them could have done; it was caused by a careless person pulling out from a cross street and into the lane of the driver who perished instead of into the turn lane. The dead man had done all he could when traveling at 55-60mph and is faced with another vehicle suddenly pulling into your lane, had swerved to avoid the head-on collision, only to hit some gravel and fishtail, spinning in to the path of an oncoming ’93 Suburban, driven by M, traveling at 55 mph, who t-boned him and ended his whole 20 years of life. The jackass who caused the wreck in the first place?? Gone. Left the scene. Local law enforcement are “being on the lookout” for the fleeing car and driver. I have long been in the habit of wearing my seatbelt; I can’t even drive 4 blocks to the store without buckling up. My hubby wears his religiously, my son is good about wearing his (sometimes after a reminder but does nonetheless). I have been in car wrecks and by the grace of God I was never seriously hurt...I was wearing a seat belt in all (I know that sounds bad but it’s only 3 and I was not at fault in any of them….no really) but one. After seeing the pictures from M’s accident, it drove home the point about making sure to always ALWAYS wear one. There is not a doubt in my mind that if M had not been wearing his, he would have been seriously injured. Or worse. That seatbelt more likely than not saved him from flying thru the windshield. Please use my “reminder moment” to remind yourselves to buckle up; remind your family, remind your friends. Remind the jerk in the next cube at work who annoys the heck out of you. If one life can be saved from this hard lesson, this young man will not have died in vain. And don’t forget to always tell your loved ones that you do….because you never know.