Being in a car accident can be a traumatic experience for just about anyone, but can also be a valuable lesson after it is all over. According to ‘Teen Driver Source,’ 16- to 17-year old drivers are nine times more likely to be involved in a crash than adults and six times more likely to be in a fatal crash than adults.

On Oct. 12, junior Natalie Taylor was driving home from school when she was in a car accident.

“I distinctly remember, I was driving home after school and was in the left turning lane, turning left from Canterbury onto 22nd Street,” Taylor said. “The light was green when I first pulled up to the intersection and I was waiting for cars to go by before turning. Then just as I was turning, I looked up and the light changed to red. I turned my head to the side quickly and out of nowhere, a man driving straight, really fast, struck my car.”

Taylor had her little brother in the car at the time of the accident and wasn’t wearing a seatbelt.

“The biggest lesson I learned from the accident is to never trust other drivers and be cautious when driving,” Taylor said. “Also, if nothing else, at least wear your seatbelt.”

Taylor’s injuries were minor but she still walked away with the feeling that she would’ve been safer with her seatbelt on.

“I had a huge bruise on my knee, another bruise on my forearm and was incredibly sore afterwards,” Taylor said. “If I had been wearing my seatbelt I wouldn’t have flung around as much, preventing the bad bruising. I walked away fine, but I do wish I would’ve worn my seatbelt.”

The first thing Taylor now does when entering a vehicle is securely puts her seatbelt on.

“There are far too many fatalities due to teenagers not wearing seatbelts, and that could’ve been me if it was a more severe accident,” Taylor said. “There may have been incidents where fatalities are caused because of a seatbelt, but in the end the numbers of fatalities due to wearing no seatbelt highly outweigh the number of fatalities due to wearing a seatbelt.”

Taylor has only one word of advice to give all of her peers.

“Seatbelts were made for a reason,” Taylor said. “I used to think they were annoying and uncomfortable too, but please wear them.”

20mweber@usd489.com