A Crash Course in Safety

One night I was riding in the car with a couple of my friends. I had my cell phone out and was dialing a number when suddenly I felt a weightless sensation. I looked up and realized the car had veered off the road and was hurling through the air. We plowed over a road sign, and that’s when I dropped the phone, closed my eyes and waited for the impending crash.

The “crash” was actually multiple impacts and lasted about 15 seconds. The car ended up both rolling over and flipping end over end, shearing a few trees in the process. The car eventually landed upside down and slid about 50 feet across an open field. Half the car’s roof was torn off, so when the whole thing was over I was hanging by my safety belt with my head in the dirt.

All three of us were buckled up and walked away from the wreck with only minor cuts and bruises. I honestly believe if we weren’t buckled up, we wouldn’t have made it through that wreck alive.

Mike, Tyler, TX

Real Teens, Real Stories: He was already gone…

Video provided by Texas Department of Health

Use Your Head. Buckle Up.

See a head-on crash test with and without a safety belt. Video provided by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

Basketball Forward Guards Her Life

I was on my way to my internship this past March. I was driving on RM 2222 just east of Loop 360, and it was raining. My car hydroplaned on the slippery road and it went off the road, hit a rock wall, flipped twice and landed in a ditch.

There I was, hanging upside down by my safety belt. I always wear it, thank goodness. It was the most life-threatening thing that’s ever happened to me for sure. I had some sports injuries before that I thought were life threatening, but in that crash, I was in something much deeper than that.

Two drivers stopped to help, and they pulled me out of my car, which was totaled. I called Coach to let her know I was ok (I’m a forward on the UT women’s basketball team). I came out with a couple of scratches on my left hand, not the shooting hand. :) If I hadn’t had a seat belt on, I would have been in the back or through a window something like that.

Talk about putting things into perspective—it could have been so much worse.

I played the next day in the Big 12 tournament in Oklahoma, and that first night I ended up posting my first career double double—I scored 15 points and had 11 rebounds. That was so awesome. Then TxDOT asked me to be a spokesperson for the Click It or Ticket campaign, and I was more than happy to speak out—maybe what I’ve been through can help remind somebody else to always buckle up.

Earnesia, senior in college

Real Teens, Real Stories: Emily

Video provided by Texas Department of State Health Services.

Saved by the Belt

I was driving me and my friend Trey to the Bell County Livestock Show early one morning this February when I heard a loud pop. Suddenly, my pickup spun end over end and landed upside down, broken in half. I was left hanging upside down by my safety belt. I reached for Trey, who was also hanging upside down, and then kicked out a window so we could crawl out of the truck. We were both scared, but we were alive. Looking back, I know we probably would have been thrown out of the truck and ended up dead if we hadn’t been buckled up.

After it happened, someone told me that pickup trucks are twice as likely as cars to roll over in a serious crash, and most people who aren’t buckled up when they’re in a rollover pickup truck crash end up dead. What happened to us could happen to anyone, so Trey and I have been trying to make sure everyone we know buckles up every time, no matter how far they’re going.

Our crashed truck has been part of some Click It or Ticket events, and thousands Texans have seen it. When people see how messed up the truck is, they can’t believe we walked away from that crash. We did get a little beat up, but that night we went to the fair and the next day we were able to show our animals. We even won Grand Reserve in our class, so that’s a pretty happy ending.

Ethan, junior in high school