Let's all try to use a little more common sense this year

by Todd Carlson

Jan 09, 2008

Most readers would probably agree with me — personal safety is an important subject. A hockey player wouldn’t dare step on the ice without wearing a helmet. A loaded gun isn’t left lying around the house. You don’t drive at 120 km/h in a raging snow storm.

Pretty simple examples of common sense, wouldn’t you agree?

But how come it seems that each Christmas I read about fires that kill one or more members of a family in a house or apartment that doesn’t have a working smoke detector — or doesn’t even have one at all?

Recently I was talking with Burk’s Falls deputy fire chief John Stark and he mentioned that about 50 per cent of residences he enters either don’t have a smoke detector or have one that does not work.

And what’s the prime cause for a smoke detector not working? A dead or missing battery.

Can you imagine the anguish a person would go through if a family member died in a fire because the battery from a smoke detector was removed to be used in a clock or a child’s toy?

How impor tant is your family? Important enough to have smoke detectors on each floor? Is spending $10 to $20 on a smoke detector a worthwhile investment? I would hope so.

Remember, too, that batteries costing a dollar are worth exactly that. Your life is worth more than a dollar, so don’t be cheap when it comes to replacing the batteries in your smoke alarms.

When I was a teenager I, along with many others, believed I was invincible. What could happen to me? I can look after myself!

I can still recall the words of my Driver’s Education instructor when he explained how if you were to get in a car accident while not wearing a seat belt that your arms would not prevent you from being propelled forward.

“Your wet noodles,” he said as he raised his limp arms, “will not stop you in an accident.”

In the fall of 1988, I, the then-invincible teenager, was working at a grocery store and a few afternoons each week had to make deliveries in the company’s van.

One day, en route to the next house, I proceeded to enter an intersection.

Suddenly my attention shifted to the left.

An old blue pickup truck, driven by a man accompanied by his two young daughters, was coming right at me.

For whatever reason, I had not seen him and had driven directly out in front of him.

With a loud crash, the pickup plowed into me and, after playing ping-pong off of the van’s windshield, I ended up on the passenger side of the vehicle.

I was not wearing my seat belt. All the occupants of the other vehicle were.

In my disoriented state I looked down as I exited the vehicle. My shoes were covered in blood. While the eggs I was delivering were not cracked, my head was. The impact of my fragile skull against the windshield had left me with a large gash above my left ear.

As I sat dumbfounded on the curb, my best friend (who had taken Driver’s Education with me) came along and proceeded to take me to the hospital.

As I sat in the hospital waiting to receive my 18 stitches, I remarked “ I guess my wet noodles didn’t hold me, did they?”

Though we laughed afterwards, at that moment both he and the doctor thought I had received a greater head injury than I actually did.

My point, of course, is that even at a low speed, the damage that can be inflicted upon the human body from a car accident is surprising.

If an accident does occur, wearing a seat belt can help prevent a more serious injury from occurring.

One would think that it would go without saying that children need to be buckled up or strapped into a child seat.

Surprisingly enough, I have seen parents drive down the road with their children standing in the back seat. Believe it or not, one day I even saw a mother who had her own seat belt on yet was simply carrying her infant child on her lap!

Common sense can help save lives or prevent injury.

Let’s all try and use some, ok?