MOMENTARY DECISIONS WITH LIFELONG IMPACT: BEING SELFISH ABOUT YOUR SAFETY

Maybe we’ve let a kid lay down in the
back of a car because they are sleepy
and grumpy – after all, the back seat is
safer, isn’t it?
The whole group wants to ride together,
and someone sits on a lap in order to fit
in one car – it’s fine, though, we’re only
going down the street.
Momentary decisions can have lifelong
impact. My passion for seatbelt safety
comes from exactly that.
My daughter’s close friend, Kailee Mills,
was in the back seat of a car with three
other friends. She removed her seatbelt
to take a picture with her friend at the
exact moment the driver lost control.
The three others in the vehicle walked
away with bumps and bruises, but Kailee
will forever be 16. The Mills family will live
with unquantifiable grief for the rest of
their lives. When the accident occurred,
they were shocked she wasn’t buckled.
The thing is, she was, until the moment
where she made a fleeting decision.
Within days of the accident, Kailee’s
father David Mills addressed a group of
heartbroken teenagers. What he said
has stuck with me. “You need to be
selfish about your safety.” He’s right. If
something is unsafe, we need to stop it
or remove ourselves. We owe it to our
families; we owe it to ourselves. We can’t
predict when something catastrophic
may occur. Seconds matter. We need to
be relentless when it comes to making
safe decisions. Every time, every second.
Since that day I have learned that this is
much more common than I would have
expected. The Kailee Mills Foundation
website states the following staggering
statistics:
u 10,000 people in the United
States die annually from not
wearing a seatbelt.
u 27.5 million Americans admit
there are times when they do
not wear a seatbelt.
u If you are not buckled up, you
are 30 times more likely to be
ejected from your vehicle.
u 75% of people ejected from a
vehicle do not survive.
u On the flip side, 86% of vehicle
occupants that survived a fatal
crash were wearing a seatbelt.

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