Really good point, Kim. We are sticklers for seat belts -- although there was a time when Cory was driving and I didn't feel like buckling mine. She refused to start the car until I buckled it. ------------------------------ On Mon, Feb 4, 2013 12:45 AM MST Kim Hyatt wrote:

All:

Deloy was kind enough to forward to me a link from yesterday’s Tribune about a fatal car accident on Highway 12 that occurred yesterday just outside of town (I did not hear about it at all yesterday): http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/55757123-78/richards-tropic-crash-culvert..... Our park superintendent emailed all employees today and confirmed that the victim, Greg Richards, is a park employee. I worked with Greg on occasion, but I did not know him well. Our park “family” is very close, and this loss will be felt keenly by all. Greg has a brother and daughter who also work in the park.

The Tribune noted that Greg was not wearing a seat belt. Whether this contributed to his death was not clear. Just a couple of miles from where Greg was killed yesterday, a local teen was seen last August passing another car at high speed, while texting, then crashed seconds later. He died because he was ejected from the car. Had he been wearing his seatbelt he likely would have survived, notwithstanding his foolishness and inexperience. His father had just chided a neighbor earlier that week who had admonished him to have his family use seatbelts. In so many words he told the neighbor, “Stay out of our business - that’s something we just don’t do.”

I feel for these families, but at the same time I am shocked that people continue to drive without using a seatbelt. I believe that the deaths of two drivers who didn’t buckle-up, from our tiny community of about 500, in less than a year’s time have to be statistically significant. There is no more excuse for refusing to wear a seatbelt than there is for pointing a loaded gun in a loved-one’s direction and pulling the trigger (unless you have homicide on your mind).

With all of the long-distance, late night driving that we do as astronomers, I BEG all of my friends to be sure to buckle that seat belt. The two or three seconds that takes have saved me from serious injury or death on at least two occasions. (Alas, neither car survived.) Please, please, use that seatbelt and insist that everyone in your car does as well.

OK – I’m off my soapbox. But still pissed off.

Kim

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