Little did I know, I ended up being right. This last Wednesday, as I merged onto the highway headed south, a mustang with the paperwork proclaiming it was a recent purchase got into the left lane so I could pull into the right lane. A half mile down the road, I was nearly even with him in our own respective lanes when he suddenly veared into our lane. I swerved the car to the right just missing slamming into his backseat by the most narrow of increments. I remember swerving, slamming on the breaks and hearing a scream from the backseat. By the time I came to a complete stop I was almost turned facing west. My 8 year old daughter behind my seat had screamed in the narrowly missed accident because she was ejected from her booster seat.
Now before you start victim blaming, know I always visually check to make sure they're buckled in. We are big on car seat safety. So when my daughter buckled in, the clip must not have been fully engaged which led to her being ejected. Stopping from a terrifying 60 mph, I know very well what could have happened. So, I've already implemented some things so this never happens to us again. Like I told my kids, you never know when an accident will happen, so we always need to make sure you're buckled in correctly every time you get in a car.
So here's the challenge and after you complete the challenge, challenge your friends with the hashtag
#seatbeltchallenge
The next time you get into the car with your kids take a few extra minutes to go over seat belt safety. It doesn't matter whether they're 5 or 15 years old. We should be going over the basics every 6 months as a reminder. People always get sloppy with the things we do over and over and all the time.
Explain and constantly quiz them on what I'm calling the 3-point seatbelt safety.
1. 
The seatbelt should rest against the hips in case of impact.
2.
Have them pull up on the seat belt after it is buckled in. This assures that the buckle has engaged properly.
3.
The seatbelt lays across the chest and up across the shoulder.
As part of the challenge, put a reminder where you will see it. I'm later going to put a label on my dashboard so for now, I hung a tag from my rear view mirror.
Thank you for taking the time to read and hopefully this challenge will be as good for your family as it was mine! After all, we haul around the most precious cargo!
