Crash survivor is living proof that seat belts save lives

The Boston Herald

Beverly Beckham

Andy Erickson didn't die last Saturday morning.

"19-year-old survives car crash" the headlines should have read, because his not dying miraculous. But it wasn't news. Surviving never is. People walk away from car crashes every day.

But Erickson shouldn't have. He fell asleep at the wheel while driving home from Boston on the VFW Parkway. His Toyota pickup truck careened over an embankment, ploughed into trees, spun around and landed back on the park-way facing the wrong direction. The truck is history. Erickson survived without a scratch.

People say he was lucky. But he was more than lucky. He was smart. He was wearing a seat belt. The seat belt saved his life.

"He always wears it," his mother said. "It's not something I have to tell him anymore. It's just automatic."

If he hadn't been wearing his belt, he would be dead today or so critically injured that his life would never be the same.

"I woke up and I was flying past trees," Erickson said.

"It was so black I didn't know where I was or where I was going."

The seat belt had kept him in the driver's seat. If he hadn't had it on, he would have had no control over the car. He wouldn't have been able to grab the steering wheel and turn. He wouldn't have been able to slam on the brakes and stop.

If he hadn't been wearing his seat belt, he could have smashed his head on the window, or hit it on the side panel, or been flung out onto the street and killed by another driver.

But none of those things happened. Solely because of a safety belt.

A few years ago, a mandatory seat-belt law was defeated in this state. Motorists refused to be told what was or was not best for them.

But the by-product of this defeat isn't just adults not buckling up, anymore, but children, too. Children 5 and under are supposed to be restrained in safety seats. This is law.

But many children are not buckled up. I see them everywhere, hanging out car windows, standing in the back seats, sitting like loose change on a seat, about to be flung in any direction at the slightest impact.

The only reason Erickson is alive today is because he was wearing a seat belt. And the only reason he was wearing a seat belt is because he was never allowed to ride in a car without one.

When he was an infant he was in a car seat; when he was a toddler it was a bigger seat; when he graduated into a belt he cried and complained because he didn't want to wear it. He wanted to sit in the front, in the middle, so he could see better.

But his mother insisted. Sometimes he would unbuckle his belt as she drove, and she would pull over to the side of the road and refuse to drive again until he put it back on.

It was the only thing she was ever adamant about. She didn't care if he ate vegetables. She didn't care if he stayed up all night. But she did care about seat belts.

Maybe that's why he continued to buckle up long after she stopped driving him, even when he was alone.

Think about this: Car accidents are the No. 1 cause of crippling injuries sustained by children in the United States. Car accidents kill more children under age 5 than all common childhood diseases. Car accidents are the leading cause of death for persons age 5 to 32.

Public opinion surveys show that 88 percent of respondents believe safety belts save lives and reduce injuries. But only 59 percent of people wear them.

Why? What is everyone thinking? Why are so many people reluctant to use a device they pay money for, that's at their fingertips, that's there to save lives?