Every year, thousands of people will sustain serious
injuries or die from unintentional injuries; injuries where steps could have
been taken to prevent them from happening. One example of such preventable
injuries are those sustained from not wearing a seat belt.
A 16-year-old Str.
Petersburg teen was killed and three other people were seriously injured in a
three-vehicle auto accident. The driver of a Ford pick-up truck slowed to make
a turn when he was rear-ended by a Chevy pick-up truck. The impact pushed the Ford into the path of a
Pontiac Vibe travelling in the opposite direction. The truck collided with the
Vibe, then hit a wooden power pole and large rock. The Vibe spun and landed in
a ditch. According to the Florida
Highway Patrol, the teen, a backseat passenger in the Vibe, was not wearing a
seatbelt. Police said fog was light, but
was not a factor in the accident. An investigation is ongoing.
The numbers don’t
lie; seatbelts save lives. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC) estimates seat-belt use reduces critical injuries and deaths
by approximately 50 percent. It only takes a moment for an injury to
happen, but it also takes just a moment to protect against injuries and make us
all safer. Take a second to “click it.” It
is one easy thing to save your life. Don’t let a deficiency of that one
elementary act be your last
Mark Bello has thirty-seven
years’ experience as a trial lawyer and over fifteen years as an underwriter
and situational analyst in the lawsuit funding industry. He
is the CEO and General Counsel of Lawsuit Financial Corporation, a pro-justice
lawsuit funding company providing necessities of life appropriation to
plaintiffs in pending, personal injury litigation.