Thirty five years ago I was barely 24 yrs old & I was working at a horse stable helping a friend get her horse ready for a show the next day. When I left, my life changed forever!
As I turned out of the driveway onto a gravel road, an 81 yr old man came up over the hill on my side of the road & hit me head on.
Being the young "know it all" that I was, I did not have on a seat belt. I hit the steering wheel & the windshield. My left leg hit a lever under the dash board & was cut open to the joint. It broke my knee cap in half & cut all the ligaments, tendons & muscles in half!
I spent 2 weeks in the hospital and ended up having 2 reconstruction surgeries on my left knee.
In all I had 4 surgeries on the left & 1 on the right because the right leg was supporting the left one all the time.
I had to quit riding horses & it really slowed me down. Some 30 years later, I had knee replacement & now life is getting better.
Also on this day, FedEx opened!!! Two great events that have changed my life forever!!!

wow so glad you are excited over a horrible accident?!!

did the man who hit you make it out ok?

What a terrible thing to happen. I'm just glad you made it out of there with your life.

Glad you came out of it okay Hilda

The man who hit me was 81 yrs old, he was in his PJ's and was not supposed to be out of the house. He lived with his daughter & grandson. He ended up suing me!!! He claimed I "jumped out of the driveway & hit him in the side"...yet all the damage was on the front of the cars & all the glass was on my side of the road. He got out of the wreck without a scratch!!!
He sued me, so my car insurance sued him. We sued him for $56,000 which at the time was alot of money & would've covered all my hospital bills. Luckily I was still under my dad's insurance & my insurance because I lived at home. Well turns out all he had was $5,000 and his 10 acres of land was in his daughter's name. I won the suit because I had a witness who cleaned up the "scene" the next morning & he testified that all the glass was on my side of the road vs in the center or on the other side. Since it wasn't what we sued him for, I got to keep all the money.
The guy died 20 years later...he was 101 yrs old when he died. They did take his car & driver's license away from him at 85.
I use this testimoney to people who don't think seat belts help...I show them what not wearing seat belts can do...not to mention in Mississippi/Tennessee you can get a big ole ticket for not wearing one.

well i'm glad you came out no worse than how you did...

i ALWAYS wear my seatbelt, its a habit i don't even think about it anymore.... i flipped my car several times when i was 16 and it totaled the car of course.. i blacked out and when i woke up i was hanging upside down with my seatbelt on... i walked away with no major injuries...

Exactly...and had I had my belt on, I would've been fine! No injuries but I didn't think I needed one. Now its such a habit that even if I'm backing out of the driveway & going to stop to put something in the mailbox, I catch myself putting my belt on.
My dad, he worked for the post office for 30 yrs. He drove one of those little jeeps. He carried Elvis Presley's mail...so he's finished his route & going back to the post office one afternoon & he's driving along...this woman in front of him gets to Elvis's house & suddenly slams on her brakes, which causes him to have to slam on his & he swerved to miss her, the jeep flips over like yours & he ends up hanging upside down also. He had a whiplash, that was it. And the funny thing was, the next day he received an award for perfect driving!!!

Wow, I'm glad it was not any worse.

Seat Belt a must with Dave and myself. Do not ride in our car/van unless you are belted. Seat belt saved me from going through the windshield a few times

I don't go without one now! But ya know, I was young & stoopid! I have a picture of the car afterwards too that I show teens...they think it can't happen to them.

Hilda - glad that you survived that mess. You are blessed but I guess you already have figured that part out. We are blessed because we have you here. Thank you for sharing it.

No Seatbelt = Chest hits the steering wheel with crushing chest injuries, if your lucky you end up under the steering wheel leg injuries, head/body through the windshield, if you are unlucky enough to go all the way through the windshield you usually hit the ground/curb/pole with your head first, thrown from car as it is rolling and it rolls over you, thrown from car and hit by another car (that happens a lot!), get T-boned and thrown through the passenger window with same results as stated previously and the list go on and on.....

If you are not going to wear your seatbelt, please sign your organ donor card.

Job security for me!

I'm so happy you are apart of EG.

I am glad that you had nothing more serious (though your injuries sounded pretty bad) because I would not be able to learn from vast experience with greys.

Tara
P.S. I always wear a seatbelt. The car doesn't start here unless the belts have clicked.

Thanks for sharing your story. Glad you survived and to tell about it.

Rycezmom, a few months ago someone sent me this email with graphic pictures...it was from a wreck where the guy was text messaging. He hit a truck from the rear, no seat belt, going 75 down the interstate. His body was under the dash board & the car was so smushed, I thought it was a compact...it was a Ford Taurus, which is not a compact car. Of course he was mangled up pretty bad.
He didn't have a seat belt on either.
I have a friend who went through the windshield, then came back through when the vehicle finally came to a stop & she is horribly scared. It sure taught me to wear a seatbelt no matter what.
I believe God was telling me if I didn't slow down, then He would slow me down & He did.

Back when I first started driving, there were no seatbelt laws and some of the real old cars didn't even have them.

I always wear my seatbelt because of all the koo koo's out there on the highways.