At 16, I was never a “morning person”, so it was odd when I awoke at 7:00 on August 4, 2023. The school year hadn’t started yet, but I was headed to the school agriculture farm everyday to feed the pig I raised for FFA. My brother had stayed at our best friend’s house, so my plan was to stop by on my way and see if they were awake. I had driven down that country road plenty of times; it wasn’t new to me. I drove past our best friend’s house and determined the boys were still asleep. I was only a couple hundred feet away from my friend’s street when I crashed. Why I didn’t stop at that stop sign, I didn’t know. It was a sound that would forever haunt me in my sleep, when I was finally able to sleep again. The sound of tires screeching, my car spinning, slamming into a telephone pole. Both sides of my car were smashed in along with the front. Drivers helped me get out through my trunk. My left wrist and collarbone were broken, my kneecap detached, and I had severe bruising and seatbelt burns across my chest and hip to hip. My windshield was completely shattered, glass sprinkling the entire inside of my car. Items that were once in my front seat had flown straight through the windshield and into a field across from me. If it wasn’t for that seatbelt, I would have been among the Yeti cup, shirts, and various other items scattered along the field. I wouldn’t have survived. The guy I hit was not as lucky as I. He was under the influence, driving with a suspended license, and driving a stolen vehicle. He was not wearing a seatbelt. As I sat in a Trauma Center bed for what seemed like days, but was indeed only 2 hours, they finally wheeled him in. My parents went out to look at him and came back white as ghosts. I asked if he was okay, and there wasn’t an answer, and to this day, they refuse to tell me what they saw, although I believe my imagination was quite accurate. They took him straight to surgery, but there was nothing the team of doctors could do for him. Today, he still lies in that hospital bed, near death and pretty much a vegetable, relying on machines to survive. Not only has this accident affected me physically, but it’s permanently changed my mental health.
Going back to school was hard. I was embarrassed to be in a cast and ashamed of the reason I wrecked. I didn’t want to tell anyone that it was my fault. The accident put me into a depressed state, and I had no motivation. I felt like I wasn’t myself anymore. After a year of gruesome questioning, the lawsuit that the individual placed upon me was dropped. It was found that although I was the one who ran the stop sign, he wasn’t even supposed to be on the road and had no grounds to come after me. The guilt I felt for putting someone in the hospital was tremendous. I blamed myself every day, and my thoughts were consumed with what-ifs: “What if he died”, “What if that was me in his place?”, “What if I never hit him and he had continued driving and injured someone else?”, “What if…what if…what if…”. Now, though I obviously still feel guilty and incredibly sympathetic, I think of my accident as a blessing. The both of us could have not been as lucky. The drivers that pulled me out of my own car were semitruck drivers, meaning that if I had ran the stop sign only a few seconds later, I would have been hit by one of those 30 ton trucks, which if I’m being honest, is completely unsurvivable.
All in all, the only reason I am still alive and thriving is because I wore my seatbelt. Any chance I get, I tell my story and emphasize the importance of wearing this life-saving safety feature. My story is a perfect example of the benefits of safety components in a vehicle. While I was practicing safe driving, the other driver was not. It is my hope that someday there will be more effective safety features in vehicles, smarter people on the road, and overall more understanding of the importance of wearing seatbelts, going the speed limit, and respecting the law.
I started my Junior year with severe mental health issues and physical limitations, scared to death to drive a car, and anxious at every stop sign. By October, I finished my market hog project and made it to the Championship Finals with a cast on and placed 2nd for my carpentry projects. Today, I am a successful senior in high school: a straight A student, Scholar Athlete, FFA Chapter Officer, incoming college student, and completed another swine project, receiving Reserve Grand Champion, 8th Place overall Showman, 7th Place in the Market Show, and won the All Around Ag Award. My accident didn’t define my fate, and I thank God (and Toyota) for keeping me safe that morning.
Please remember,
SEATBELTS SAVE LIVES

Thank you.