When I arrived on the scene shortly after 9 p.m. Monday I saw a crashed up car and a man holding a baby. I was at the intersection of Highway 113 and Highway 31 in Flomaton where a vehicle had plowed into the side of an 18-wheeler.
First glance at the car told me this was a bad wreck. It was bad, but it could have been worse. The man I saw holding the baby turned out to be the driver of the car and the baby was his 8-month old daughter who was properly secured in a child restraint seat in the back seat.
The man wasn't hurt, the mama suffered injuries, the baby was smiling. All were either wearing their seatbelts or in a child restraint seat.
“They're lucky to be alive,” were the first words I heard out of Flomaton Fire Chief Steve Stanton's mouth. I had to agree.
I started wearing a seatbelt before seatbelts were mandated by law. My first newspaper job was in Fayetteville, Tenn., which is located in Lincoln County. For the two years I was there Lincoln County had the most traffic fatalities per capita than any county in the state of Tennessee.
The two reasons I determined were all the winding roads and people not wearing seatbelts. I went to many head-on collisions that included fatalities. I would see bodies slammed into the steering wheel or dashboard, but I could see a gap between the seat and the dash. I thought 'If they had their seatbelt on, they may have broken some bones, but they wouldn't be dead'.
I went to a wreck one night when five or six members of one family were killed. The only survivor was a 3 or 4 month old little boy who was strapped in a child restraint seat in the back seat. His dead parents and siblings were not restrained. It was a gruesome sight.
You know when you get old you forget many things, but the image of that child in the backseat of that vehicle is etched in my mind. It was at night with a lot of emergency vehicles shinning lights. I approached the vehicle and saw the young child in the backseat smiling. He kind of glowed like an angel and I later figured out it was pieces of glass on his head and face that made him shine like an angel.
But I also have another image etched in my mind that happened right here in Flomaton. I went to a wreck on Highway 113 and the intersection of Wolflog Road. The first thing I saw was a dead child in his child restraint seat hanging out the window. Although the child was in the seat, the seat was not restrained in the car.
My wife tells me I can't remember if she gives me more than three items to pickup at the grocery store unless I write them down. She's probably right, but the image of the living child in Fayetteville and the dead child in Flomaton are forever stuck in my head.
I'm a firm believer in the saying that 'seatbelts save lives'. I've covered too many wrecks where people got ejected and killed who would have probably walked away with a few bumps and bruises (maybe a stitch or two) if they had been wearing a seatbelt.
Adults can make a decision when they get behind the wheel of a vehicle. Small children don't get to make that decision because their parents are making the decision for them.
I've talked to a multiple police officers over the years. They may give the adult a warning if he or she is pulled over and not wearing a seatbelt. They basically have a no-tolerance policy when it comes to children.
If you want to be stupid and not wear a seatbelt, that's one thing. If you are stupid enough to put your young child in a vehicle without a child restraint seat, that's another. Your job is to protect your children.
Monday's crash had a happy ending because the parents made the decision to properly strap their baby in a child restraint seat.
Hopefully, people will take this to heart and realize seatbelts do save lives.
