LETTER | It's still smart to wear your seatbelt
Several years ago, I was driving home from work and had to stop at 26th Street and Highway 11. There was another car coming towards us — he was in my lane. I tried to take the ditch, but he hit us head on. We ended up in a field, and our little white Pontiac had the front end smashed up to the fire wall.
We had our seatbelts on (as our employer asked us to do), but I had a broken foot because I was stepping on the brake too hard. My husband had two broken ribs from the seat belt.
The man in the other car was not wearing his seatbelt, and he died because of the accident.
Please people, I implore you to buckle up and live.
Nancy Peterson
Sioux Falls
On the day after Thanksgiving in 1995, my father and stepmother had just dropped my family at Phoenix airport for our return to Sioux Falls. On their drive home, my father mistook a 2-wat stop for a 4-way stop. He entered the intersection and his car was hit by a 2.5 ton truck on the passenger side. My stepmother was wearing a seatbelt and was killed instantly. My father was not wearing a seatbelt and suffered minimal effects of the accident.
He agreed that, despite his personal experience, it's always a good idea to wear a seatbelt. Adding to the poignancy and irony of the story is that he had just retired as the number 2 national executive for the American Automobile Association (AAA) two weeks before.