I promise to wear my seat belt

There is a phrase I dread to hear. Code red.

That is the phrase the emergency responders use to describe a patient who is in critical condition.

They may be near death.

When I hear code red come over the scanner, I grab my notebook, camera and head out to a lone section of highway that is ablaze with lights and sirens.

I wait patiently while medics frantically care for the injured. Officers direct gawkers past orange cones dropped out of the back of police cars.

The highway is littered with crushed and mangled car parts and broken glass as if a child had spilled a model kit onto the highway.

There is a standard set of question I fire at he officer in charge.

Name?

Age?

Hometown?

Cause of accident?

But then there is the question that I generally know the answer to.

It is told by the broken bodies.

Were they wearing a seat belt?

In last 10 years, for 80 percent of the Kansas fatalities and 40 percent of the injuries, the answer was no.

I hate those days.

I lie in bed those nights thinking about what I have seen. I think about the families of the victims. I say a prayer.

And I wonder why?

Why weren’t they wearing their seat belts?

Was it inconvenient?

Did it slip their minds’?

Maybe they just didn’t like the way the seat belt felt?

I am bad about wearing my seat belt.

I always buckle up when I drive on the highway, but it seems inconvenient to buckle up in town.

Who gets hurt five blocks from your house?

Many people do.

Most people who will be seriously injured in an accident will do so within 25 miles from their homes at speeds of 40 mph or less.

I could drown you in statistics about how seat belts save lives.

I won’t.

I have a 3-year-old nephew. He is the light of my life. I want him to grow up to be a healthy young man. I want to be here to see him do that.

He rides in a car seat every time he rides in a vehicle. He is always buckled up.

I need to do the same.

I have decided to make a pledge to the people I love to be there for them. I have decide to pledge to wear my seat belt every time I am in a vehicle.

I will make a simple plea to fellow drivers of Harvey County.

Wear your seat belt every time you get in your car and make everyone else in your car wear a seat belt also.

I have created this pledge that I am going to sign, cut out and place on my sun visor to remind me that wearing a seat belt is not a matter of convenience or comfort. It is the law, and it could save my life.

It could save yours, too.

Cristina Janney is news editor of The Newton Kansan. Feel free to contact her at cristina.janney@thekansan.com.