Did we just crash?

By Sarah Smith

Sarah's vehicle involved in the crash.

It started off a morning just like any other. I headed down K-10 toward Olathe with two of my children in tow - my 5-year-old son, Micah, was seated in the third row of our mini-van, and my 2-year-old daughter, Ruby, in the second row. As we do most mornings, we were chatting and listening to music, when I noticed a deer cross the highway. He got clipped by a passing car, but seemed to be ok as he hopped into the woods. Having married a man from rural Kansas, I’d learned long ago that deer rarely travel alone, and although I knew this, I had no chance to process the thought.

Sarah and Dustin's children - Ruby, Johanna, Micah and Emery.

It happened so fast, the loud sound of impact, feeling my head hit something hard, and the shower of glass that rained into the car. Everything seemed to happen in slow motion and all at once. I tried to stay calm and managed to bring the van to a stop on the shoulder of the road. That’s when I noticed the blood spattered across the inside of the van, but I didn’t feel like I’d been hurt. I began to panic and immediately turned to check on the kids. They were alert and fine, except for the glass that covered us all. Micah calmly asked me, “Did we just crash?” I’d never felt so relieved to hear him talk in my life.

Finally after I put two and two together, I realized that we must have hit a deer, whose blood and antlers now covered the inside of the car. As I surveyed the situation, I realized that my children were both ok because they’d been sitting in their car seats.

When it comes to car seats, I’ve always been that mom. You know the kind that doesn’t move the car until everyone is seated and fastened. Maybe it was all those videos that they showed us in high school, or the crumpled car they parked in front of school before prom - whatever it was, it worked. Later, when I was pregnant with my first child, my husband and I knew that purchasing a car seat would be one of the most important decisions we could make. We did our research and carefully chose one to protect the life of our new baby.

Dustin and Sarah

My daughter, Johanna, who is 9 years old, was the first grandchild on my side of the family, and the new grandparents were somewhat baffled with this new contraption. I could tell that they questioned the necessity of the car seat, once even asking if it was ok to let the baby ride in their lap for a short trip.  Naturally the answer was a resounding, “No!”

My husband and I now have four children, and I am still that mom. I’m generally easy going, but when it comes to car seats, there is no discussion. All the kids ride in car seats or boosters, including the 10-year-old, whose eye rolling hasn’t gotten her out of her high-back booster.

I hit the buck going 70 miles per hour, and yet my son, daughter and I walked away with minor bumps and scratches. I have no doubt that if my children had not been safely secured in their car seats the outcome would have been very, very, different.

Sarah Smith is a Project Manager for Johnson County Public Works in Olathe.