Five Seconds

Five Seconds. That’s about how long it takes to put a seatbelt over your chest and into the buckle. Some people might think this thin piece of fabric is insignificant and not worth five seconds, and they are right. It’s not worth five seconds, it’s worth years. According to the NHTSA, seat belts saved almost 15,000 lives in 2017. But the sad news is that they could have saved 2,500 more if the people were wearing them. Seatbelts are designed to withstand literal tons of force applied within a fraction of a second. They also help to reduce the amount of force so that your body doesn’t take it all. So no matter how slow you are going or how short of a trip you are making, a seatbelt can be the difference between life and death. I know from experience how much a seatbelt can help at low speeds. One Sunday morning heading on a 5 minute trip to Church I got distracted and headed into a ditch at 30 mph. Even at that low of a speed my body felt like flying forward, but it was stopped thanks to a seatbelt. If it weren’t for that seatbelt I probably would have got a concussion and multiple broken bones. To think how much money a simple stretch of fabric saved my family is unfathomable.So please, next time you get into a car, don’t think of it as losing five seconds but saving years.