My son is a

typical 15-year old; he's interested in cars and girls. Both of which,

I told him, could get him into a lot of trouble.

"I can't

wait till I'm an adult!" he mumbled as he walked up the steps to

his room, "then I can do what I want too, drive where I want to and

not be sent to my room when I get into trouble." (How is it that

the only thing kids want to do is to grow up and be adults and the only

thing that most adults want is to be kids again?)

Like most 15-year-olds,

my son wants to get his learner's permit and start to drive. I told him,

"First you must learn all the traffic laws and start looking at the

speed limit signs to get familiar with the posted limits."

He then said,

"All of my friends drive over the limits so why can't I?"

Have you ever

gone the speed limit in this county? Don't feel bad; no one else does

either. If you want to see people mad, cussing and sending obscene gestures

your way as they zoom past you just, try and go the posted speed limit

on any road in this county.

I told my son,

"At 15, I, too, got a driver's license and proceeded to drive well

in excess of the speed limit. I got a ticket and paid a $300 fine and

my dad did not let me drive for the next six months."

This is repeated

every day but, unfortunately, sometimes with a more tragic end result.

Injuries from

motor vehicle crashes in 2000 were the number-one cause of death for teenagers.

The average cost of a trip to the hospital after being injured in a motor

vehicle crash is $25,000 with the cost of rehabilitation being $56,000.

But all you have to do to avoid all of this cost is to wear a seat belt,

so why do people still not buckle up?

I picked up

one of my son's friends to take them to the movies. We pulled out of his

driveway, and I asked him, "Do you have $81,000?" He shook his

head no. I said, "In that case you should put on your seat belt."

While driving

them to the movies, I tried to explain the idea of wearing seat belts

a little better. I asked, "Which one of you would run as fast as

you can face first into the side of a concrete building?" They both

said they would not because that would be stupid. I continued, "That

is the equivalent of an unbelted passenger hitting the windshield when

the automobile is traveling at only 15 miles per hour."

"But Dad,"

my son said, "we're only going 35." (Like most teenagers, he

has an answer for everything, shame that it's not the right one.)

I told him,

"Weighing 180 pounds and going 35 MPH, you would hit the dashboard,

windshield, and finally the pavement with a force of over 3,600 pounds."

They still could not get the concept, so I decided to paint a different

picture.

I asked them

to blink their eyes and tell me how long it took. When they got through

arguing about who was faster, they agreed that it took about a second.

A lot can happen in that one second if you are traveling at 55 miles an

hour in a car.

I told them

that if you hit a solid object at 55 miles per hour all of the following

will happen to you and the new sports car that you will not be getting,

in just one second. In the first half-second the front bumper and grill

will collapse, the hood will crumble (which breaks the windshield), and

the fenders will wrap around the object you just hit. At one second, the

first two feet of the car's front end is wrecked but the rear of the car

is still moving at 35 MPH.

But you don't

care about your new car being crumpled because you were not wearing a

seatbelt and are still traveling at 55 MPH as you sail through the windshield.

At this point you will understand why it's always a good idea to wear

your seat belt.

I had gotten

their attention and decided to illustrate my point further. Both of them

being big weightlifters at the high school, I asked which one of them

could hold a baby. They looked puzzled. I asked them if they could hold

a baby that weighed 300 pounds. They again looked puzzled.

I explained

that if you were holding a 15-pound baby in your arms and were in a car

crash going only 30 miles an hour, that the baby would then weigh over

300 pounds. There would be no way you could hold on to it, and what is

really scary is that no one drives that slowly around here. I think my

point got across, but all they could talk about the rest of the way to

the movies was what a 300-pound baby looks like.

Before going

into the movies my son turned around and said, "Now I understand

why I should wear my seat belt and drive the speed limit. But I still

think that adults don't have to follow rules like I do."

I told him,

"Adults have many rules to follow; except we just call them laws.

If we don't follow them we get into trouble just like you do."

He said, "Yeah,

but I bet they don't get sent to their room as punishment."

I said, "Yes

they do; it's just that the rooms are a little smaller than yours and

they have bars on the windows and doors."

[Rick Ryckeley

is a full-time employee of Fayette County Fire and Emergency Services.

He can be reached at [email protected] .]