Name: Jackson Davis
From: Apopka, Florida
Votes: 0
“Beep! Beep! Beep!” In the car with my dad, the warning system is
signaling that someone isn’t using their seatbelt. Knowing the
implications of not using a seatbelt, I remind my dad to buckle up.
“Beep! Beep! Beep!” In in the car with my dad, once again the
warning system alerts us that someone isn’t using their seatbelt,
so I remind him once more.
“Beep! Beep! Beep!” In the car with my dad, I look over to my
left, and to my dismay, there he is again, driving whilst the warning
signals blares, which he seems to ignore, but concerned for his
safety, I cannot.
In 2017, over 37,000 people were killed in motor vehicle crashes in
the U.S. Of those who died, 47% were not buckled up at the time of
the crash (Seat Belts). As a result of this, thousands of
American families grieved over the preventable death of a loved one.
It is much harder for family and friends to accept the death of a
loved one caused by something preventable that could have been
avoided if a simple action had taken place. For these families, the
simple action was placing a harness around oneself while in a vehicle
which would, in fact, have saved an estimated 14,955 lives in 2017
alone (Seat Belts).
While riding in the car with my dad, it seems like it is only a
matter of time before the warning sound goes off. Despite being
annoyed with the fact that he either forgets, or refuses to remember,
to buckle up, I remind him each and every time. Due to various public
health initiatives that impacted me at a young age, I have never had
a problem with remembering to use my seatbelt. Rather, it has become
a subconscious action that happens every time I sit in a car. I
understand that my situation might not be comparable to my dad’s,
where wearing a seatbelt might not have been the “cool” thing to
do at the time of his youth, which helped form this bad habit he has
of not buckling up. Lately, however, he has been getting better at
using his seatbelt, and I haven’t had to remind him to buckle up
every time we are in the car together. I just hope that my repeated
reminders stick with him when he drives by himself, since there will
be no one by his side to repeat what the warning system is already
yelling at him, which is to make the right decision, and put on the
dang seatbelt!
Sources:
“Seat Belts.”
NHTSA,
www.nhtsa.gov/risky-driving/seat-belts#:~:targetText=Of%20the%2037%2C133%20people%20killed,had%20been%20wearing%20seat%20belts.
