"It won't happen to me": a seat belt saved my life.

While we never may have said this out loud, I think many of us believe it--and that's after having seen crashes in the news or with our own two eyes as we travel local roadways. Some slow down to look, and even a few get rattled by what they see, but I wonder if any ever really take a second to consider they might be next.

I was a newly commissioned chief warrant officer, heading to my first assignment in Virginia Beach, Va. I just had finished CWO indoctrination and aviation maintenance officer training at NAS Pensacola. Having left Virginia Beach two months earlier, I was eager to get back home and get ready to check into my new command. I planned to leave at 0200 and drive all day, so I'd reach Virginia Beach the same day--just like I'd done, going to Pensacola.

Driving such long distances in one day was nothing new to me; I had done it many times before and saw no reason to deviate from the norm now. I just had prepped my '88 Jeep Grand Wagoneer the day before with a full tuneup, oil change, and a thorough check for the trip. I also went to bed at 2000 the night before leaving, so I'd feel good and be ready to go.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

The first 12.5 hours on the road were uneventful. The weather was perfect, and my old Jeep was running great. Once I got off the interstate, I stopped for gas a last time on route 58 before starting the last leg of my journey. I was getting excited. With minimal traffic on this rural section of highway, in the middle of a weekday, I knew I'd be home in barely more than an hour. I called my fiancee once I was on the road again to give her my timetable and to let her know things were going well. Unfortunately, all of that changed about 10 minutes after our conversation ended.

I was cruising about 65 (in a 60-mph zone), passing an occasional car, on a highway with four lanes of traffic--two in each direction, separated by a grass median. As I moved into the left lane and started passing a late '90s Honda Accord that was going quite slow, I glanced at the driver and noticed he was slumped over the steering wheel. What happened next took only seconds, but it seemed to last an eternity.

As the other car headed into the ditch, the driver must have woke up and overcorrected, or the front wheels caught on something and turned to the left. Regardless, the Honda came back out of the ditch and smashed into the right rear of my Jeep, spinning it-NASCAR fashion--90 degrees to the right. Needless to say, a 5,500-pound, high-center-of-gravity vehicle doesn't stay upright very long, going down the road sideways at 65 mph. According to state-police reports, my Jeep rolled six times before coming to rest on the side of the road in three pieces. The body, engine and transmission all had detached from the frame.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

As I sat there in what was left of my Jeep, I couldn't believe I still was alive. Glass covered me, and I had superficial cuts all over and seemed to be bleeding everywhere. I looked down to find the one thing that had saved my life: my seat belt. It was fastened securely around my waist, as it always is when I'm driving or riding. I developed this habit at the age of 16, when I first started driving. That same year, my home state of Michigan enacted the mandatory seat-belt law.

After pulling myself out of the passenger-side window--the doors had been crushed in place--I was shocked to see what had happened to my vehicle. I had sunk thousands of dollars into it, and now it was ruined, but I was alive, and that's all that really mattered. An ambulance soon arrived and rushed me to Southern Virginia Regional Medical Center for a checkup.

Paramedics and doctors there were amazed at my lack of injuries. Aside from many small cuts, seat-belt lacerations, and a piece of glass in my hand, I was uninjured. The firefighters on the scene said they hadn't ever seen a crash this bad that hadn't involved a fatality. The other driver's vehicle just had spun across the median and come to rest on the other side of the highway.

I later found out the other driver was an 18-year-old seaman recruit headed to his first duty station at Portsmouth Naval Hospital. He, too, had been driving all day, but from Charleston, S.C.

The similarities here were many: both of us Navy, both heading to the Tidewater area under orders, both trying to make the trip in one day, and last but not least, both ending up at the same place, at the same time, at 60 or 65 mph. I have no doubt that fatigue was the main factor in this crash--he, obviously, had fallen asleep at the wheel. It just as easily could have been me asleep at the wheel. Both of us had been up a long time and had been driving all day. Thankfully, we both were wearing our seat belts.

This mishap made the front page of the local county paper the next day. The headline read, "Man walks away from totaled car." I walked away from that vehicle only because I was wearing my seat belt, not because I was lucky or because it wasn't my time to go. Don't you owe it to you and your family to give yourself that second chance?

Here are the lessons I learned the hard way:

* Visit TRiPS, the online, automated risk-assessment tool designed for Sailors and Marines who are getting ready to go on liberty or leave or are driving outside command travel limits. The system helps you recognize--and avoid--the hazards faced on the highway. Navy personnel can reach the site via Navy Knowledge Online (NKO) at https://wwwa.nko.navy.mil. Marine Corps personnel can reach the site via the Army Combat Readiness Center website at https://crcapps2.crc.army.mil/TRiPS/marines.

* Limit your driving time; 12 hours is far too long to drive.

* Get enough sleep before driving.

* Always wear your seat belt, even if you're just going around the corner to the store. You never know when a crash is coming.

* Always watch out for the other guy.

* It (a crash) can happen to you.

Resources:

* Fatal Factors: Fatigue, http://safetycenter.navy.mil/seasonal/criticaldays/ CDS08/briefs/CDS08_fatigue.ppt#268,1,Slide 1

* TRiPS--The Travel Risk Planning System, http://www.safetycenter.navy.mil/ashore/ motorvehicle/TRiPS/default.htm

* Innovative Safety Belt Programs, http://safetycenter.navy.mil/ ashore/articles/motorvehicle/occupantprotection.htm

By CWO3 Scott S. Hadley,

VFA-37