Talk to your teens please.

Just got back from a funeral for a 17 year old boy. "Borrowed" dads(a good friend of mine) truck to take his girlfriend and her friend for a ride. They hit a tree at a high rate of speed. Tossed one girl out of the truck, then the truck landed on her. She is in very bad shape and will never be the same. No seat belt. Friends son piled into the steering wheel, dash, and roof causing massive head and chest trauma. He lived three days. No seat belt, and the air bags didn't help. The girlfriend had her seat belt on, she was treated and released.

Never have I seen a man so broken in spirit. It was a sad sad day. He just buried his baby boy.

Talk to your teens and remind them they aren't ten feet tall and bullet proof. At the very least remind them about wearing a seat belt.

I hate funerals.

That's horrible. My intention when I do have children is to start them on racing/driving as soon as the law will allow, and have them build their own first car, in hopes that they learn proper respect for a vehicle.

Even if they're not interested in racing, seatbelts seatbelts seatbelts! The cost/benefit ratio is fantastic.

Man, that's a bad story.

Even though it wasn't the same situation, I lost my first born (a boy) and that pain never goes away. It took my over 7 years before I could even face the persons responsible for it and not want to remove vital organs. Like has been said here and in other threads, I plan on having my 3 kids racing and driving Jeeps in the woods long before they are ever on the road, and more than that, they will learn the reason those seatbelts are there.

This is the second time in just a few weeks that I have heard a story like this. The other was a 19 year old racing a Neon on the street. These stories are heart breaking. Kudos to the guys doing the teen driver programs, getting kids to respect the limits of cars and themselves while learning life saving car control.

My kids already know the car doesn't move until the seatbelts go on. It's a lesson we reinforce every day.

I remember seeing a car like mine in the junkyard where someone was killed, that really made me think. (I think I was about 17). I think I will show my kids a wrecked car similar to theirs when they start driving.

Joey

Horrible. I was in a nasty accident on PCH at 18. One of the few things I remember was a paramedic saying seatbelts + airbags had saved my life. Buckle up, seriously.

Toyman, that sucks.

It does remind me though that I was in the barber shop today listening to the douchebag in the chair saying that he was goin to take his 1100 hp heavily built Corvette (I've seen and heard it run and I believe the power with both stagws of nitrous is likely close to that) out street racing tonight - with a couple off duty cops! It took a lot of willpower not to punch him in the mouth. I hope that when he loses control the only life he takes is his own.

Toyman... for as little help as a stranger's condolences are - pass mine on to your good friend.

Two years ago I almost lost 3 friends. It was our Junior year and they were coming home from a party and my one buddy apparently decided to floor it along a bumpy country road in his SAAB 900 Turbo. They ended up hitting gravel and rolling it over and landing in the ditch. Even though they were all wearing seat belts, the one sitting in back messed up his back, the one in the passenger seat broke his legs, and the driver broke his shoulder and collar bone. For the most part they are all fine now, but I will never forget the call from their parents or seeing them in the hospital. The only reason I wasn't with them is because I had a race the next morning. I ended up missing it anyway...

The driver and passenger were both swimmers and the one in back was big into dirt bikes and offroad vehicles in general. Now they can't really enjoy the things they once loved. Please do tell your kids, nieces/nephews, and close friends sons/daughters to buckle up, and even if they already do buckle up, enforce speed limits too. It isn't worth the short adrenaline rush. Save that for the track where it will likely have a lasting effect.

Send my condolences Toyman. It sucks things like this to happen.

This is a miserable thread.

Let's hope to see them buckle up and not text while driving.

Seatbelts are definitely a must, I know a guy that built his VW MKIII for shows and did full upholstery. Took out the seatbelts. When I pointed out to him that that was kind of ridiculous he just laughed it off and agreed with me. Whatever.

Everyone, enforce helmets with bicycles too. I now don't have hearing in my left ear and live with permanent tinnitus in the same ear because I wanted to be cool.

My condolences as well. Back in 96 due to icy conditions I rolled my Jeep down a hill the roll bar and seat belt are likely the only reasons I can still enjoy driving.

That just sucks, but unfortunately it happens too often. Every summer, usually when school lets out, there's two or three killed every year in this area. One two weeks ago bashed a stone wall with a Neon. Too fast, too many kids in the car, too late at night, driving out of his license class.

You can break all the laws in the world except the laws of physics.

My condolences to your friend, if it were me I would be heavily sedated....

DoctorBlade wrote: My kids already know the car doesn't move until the seatbelts go on. It's a lesson we reinforce every day.

Same here.

Allen, I am so sorry to hear of that. If there's anything I can do, please let me know.

We lost one person in my class per year in high school to a car wreck, almost always due to excessive speed.

My son is only 10 weeks old but I already told my wife he would be receiving driving training at an early age. He will get his speed thrills on a closed course, and hopefully out of his system.

Seat belt and airbag saved my life, when my son asks why we put on our seat belts I'm going to put his hand on my leg and let him feels all the bolts. We wear seat belts because dad only has a metal leg instead of not being here at all.

As much as I wish it didn't this hits close to home for me. My 17yo nephew had his first accident( after having the car for about 2wks ), and the car seems to be totaled. Speed and weather was involved and the end result was a tree stopping the car as it went across a field backwards. The bulk of the injuries right now are just a few stitches, but it really scared me.

It frustrates me on alot of levels( little driving experience, little supervision, driving w/ friends, etc.. ), but I can't enforce my rules on some elses' kids. I think this could have been avoided if a teen driving school had been offered in their area, or even some dirt road lessons like I had when I was a kid. Gives me gray hairs just looking at my 3 week old son, and remembering some of the things I did. I can't imagine losing someone so close to me and I hurt for the people that do.

Sorry for the rant, but I think I needed to say this.

thankfully he hit that tree backwards.. being thrown INTO the seat saved him a lot of injuries. Trees are pretty ruthless creatures.. when push comes to shove.. they usually win.

I have thankfully never lost a friend to a car accident, but being a trucker for more than a few years put me into the midsts of quite a few nasty accidents that ended up fatal for those involved.

I always buckle up. Sometimes I have a hard time not doing it just to back a car out of the garage.

Funerals suck. Funerals for children double suck.

Seat belts are good. Seat belt, racing seat and Toyota "build it plenty strong and it ought to hold, damn the weight penalty" philosophy saved me when the MR2 (RIP) got wrapped around a F150 at a rather high rate of speed. Broke my cell phone, though.

It really does amaze me that people don't wear belts. You really only need to be in a fairly minor accident to realize the benefit. Unfortunately, for some, that accident is not minor, and it is their last.

aircooled wrote: It really does amaze me that people don't wear belts.

Me too. I went to highschool with a kid who apparently is a complete moron. He didn't wear his seatbelt in his car and forbade anyone else riding in his car from wearing one too. His reasoning was "If we die we die together".

My condolences. Come to think of it, the only funerals I had been to that where not for elderly persons where all vehicle related. Back in 9th grade my best friend was killed in an accident. No belt, sleeping in the back of a metro. The other one is a story for another time.

The paper here always mentions if seatbelts were not worn in a fatal crash. I don't know if anyone notices, but hopefully it's worming its way into some people's subconscious. My parents always had me wearing my belt as a kid, and now it feels very uncomfortable not to wear one.

I was lucky. I grew up where there's lots of snow, so I got all my teenage thrills from driving sideways in parking lots and on streets with big snowbanks on each side. Slow speeds, lots of time to catch it if things go wrong, and a big bank to hit if you don't sort it out. Generally speaking the worst damage is the embarrassment of getting stuck. Never did put it in the bank, but they're preferable to trees.

we had some nurses come to our high school for a program called "trauma nurses talk tough" and they brought a slide show with alcohol and speed related injuries from a variety of different sources (watersports, lots of car wrecks, etc). extremely graphic and upsetting. several people got sick viewing them.

I thought it was EXTREMELY effective and still remember many of those images to this day.