Why we need to be safe in the car

niccig · Apr 2, 2008

I was at my speech therapy session today and we were in the main room that is also used for physical therapy. There was a girl maybe in her mid-20s and to me it seemed that she had a stroke. I later asked my therapist, because the girl was so young, and was told she had been in a head on car crash seven years ago when she was in college. She has improved, at first she couldn't walk or talk, and now with help she can do both a little. It just sent shivers up my spine. I know people who were hurt in car accidents, but nothing like this. There are so many other people I know who believe it will never happen to them, I wish they had been with me to see this young woman.

scatterbunny · Apr 2, 2008

I KWYM. When I was in high school there was more than one classmate who died in crashes, almost all drunk driving on our country backroads.

Two classmates, in two separate crashes in different years, were lucky enough to survive the crashes, both with lasting damage. One is ambulatory and functions normally now, but the other was a quadraplegic, in a wheelchair, with a trach tube, and he died a few years ago in his sleep. It's sadly all too common in my community for at least one high school kid to die each year in drunk driving crashes. Usually the number is higher than that.

My mom has also been in two bad crashes, one almost killed her.

Seeing things like that growing up made me a car safety freak even before I became a carseat freak.

Shaunam · Apr 2, 2008

I was researching hbot therapy for DD and found this youtube video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbFs9NN__Mk

It's amazing what the therapy can do but it's so sad to see people hurt like this in the first place.

Who knows the circumstances. Maybe it was a crash that was so bad, no amount of car safety could have prevented this, or maybe he was unbuckled or otherwise not being safe.