Seatbelts Do Save Lives

Or should I say, not wearing them costs lives.

The fact that it is 40 years since the law was passed regarding complusory seat belt wearing in Victoria has some signifigance to me. You see when I was 18 in my first year of Uni living i nMelbourne away from home I got a knock on the door on a Sunday night.

The girl who knocked on the door was from the same country town as me and she told me that her parents had heard a good friend of mine had been in an accident. Scott my mate, probably one of my closest friends at the time had been back to the country for the weekend to play footy, to catch up with mates and to have a good time before heading back to Melbourne to work.

He and I used to hang out in Melbourne as we were the only 2 guys from my year who moved to Melbourne, he for a trade, myself to go to Uni. Scott and I would catch up after work/uni and go for dinners, or beers, or both! In fact when the knock on the door occured I had a bag of his clothes in my cupboard because i lent him some clothes to go out in.

Back to the Sunday night.. the girl told me that it was quite serious and that I should make some calls. I rang my parents but the had not heard much. I rang friends and the news came back that things were not good.

Scott had been taken by Ambulance to Hospital where he was on life support. two days later his parents turned off the machine because he was brain dead. He was 18, the oldest of 4 boys and a true friend.

Over the following days I heard that what had happened was that Scott and another friend had been to visit some others and were on the way back to town, Scott a bit of a risk taker was not fond of the seatbelt in the old car as the clip was hard to undo (he had told me as such on previous road trips). He took a dodgy bend too fast and rolled the car about 400m from his parents house. Scott was thrown out, the passenger escaped with a fractured arm.

Again - he was 18, eldest of 4 brothers and a friend to everyone. he died within sight of his parents house all because he didnt like doing up his belt.

I do reflect on what could have been with Scott. A true mate who would have been a friend for life. To me it is already half a life ago.

So please Buckle Up.