| A
Grateful Mother’s Letter :
Dear Mark,
Thank you, thank you!!!!
I saw an article in the Randburg Sun last night
and checked out your website this morning and my
particular interest was in your articles on child
safety in the car. This is something very close
to my heart and about four years ago I tried to
start an awareness of the importance of strapping
your children in by putting my story on paper and
distributing the letter to various nursery schools.
For various reasons however I could not continue
and had to give up.
Briefly, my story is that on 26th October 2002 I
had an accident, 700 metres away from the house
that we had been visiting. We were driving up the
road and a reckless driver did not stop at the stop
sign coming out of the side street and he hit us
with enough force to roll us onto the roof. It took
emergency workers two and a half hours to cut me
out of the car. My husband (now ex) sustained a
badly sprained wrist and concussion. I sustained
five pelvic fractures, concussion, two broken ribs
and then had complications in hospital (ARDS) which
resulted in me being induced into a coma for two
weeks. My recovery has been 100 % and I consider
myself very fortunate.
My son of four years old was also in the car and
I have always been very fanatical about strapping
him in and he was as always, in his baby seat. The
injury that he sustained was bruising across the
chest from the straps. THAT WAS ALL!!! I have no
doubt in my mind that if he had not been in his
chair, he would have been dead or severely injured
and all the times that I was running late and considered
not strapping him in to save time, I am now so grateful
that I always took the time to strap him in. It
is a way of life for us and I don't even tell him
anymore to strap in because it is an automatic reflex.
Of course he is now nearly 10 years old and no longer
in a baby or booster seat but he still always straps
in. My three year old also straps in without any
question or complaint as he has been strapped in
since birth and doesn't know any different. He has
just moved out of his baby seat and into the booster
seat and is every so chuffed with his new chair.
I have always thought how people buy expensive cars
but cannot take the time to buy the baby seats.
Parents look for the best schools for their off
spring but couldn't be bothered to teach them about
vehicle safety. Parents will strap themselves in
but leave their children to bounce around unrestrained
in the car and if ever one dares to point this out
to the offenders, you can be guaranteed of a string
of verbal abuse and be told to mind your own business.
There is no such thing as "I'm not going far
so it will be okay" because as I mentioned
above, my accident was only 700 metres away from
where we had just left. I could go on forever expressing
the stupidity of similar statements but won't bore
you as I'm sure you feel the same way.
I just wanted to say thank you and well done for
speaking up and if I can do anything to help, please
let me know.
Regards
Shelley Cartwright
Cell : 072 296 4871
E-mail : shelley@chartering.co.za
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