DJ: Air on the side of safety

Russell Rush

There are certain events in life that change your way of thinking forever and cause you to do something a certain way from there on out. One such incident happened very close to me when I was in high school. My younger sister was out with her friends driving around, joy riding – the same thing hundreds of other teenagers were doing that Friday night. They were listening to the radio jammin' out, singing along, when another car crossed the center line and was headed directly for them. The driver in the car my sister was in swerved to miss the oncoming car, but in the process jerked the wheel too sharply and flipped the car end over end several times. Miraculously, no one was killed or badly hurt...most of the passengers were wearing their seatbelts – everyone but my sister. Because she had made the decision to not wear her seatbelt, she was thrown from the vehicle while it was flipping some several hundred feet from the car. Her back was hurt, she was cut up and bruised...and seeing her writhing in pain from the accident was one of the worst things I've ever gone through. She was given a second chance...most people aren't. From that moment on, I have never thought twice about putting my seatbelt on, even if I'm going around the block. It's such an easy thing to do to save your life...and I for one, don't feel like playing the odds again.

KXXM [San Antonio]