Saturday afternoon my sister and I were heading to the mall to check out some sales, and as we were attempting to merge from I59 to I12, we suddenly ran into a traffic jam. My sister said, "Turn on the lights and sirens!"

"I wish."

"Come on!" she urged. "You know you want to!"

Then we saw the cause of the slowdown--an wrecked car against the trees, and several cars off to the side. We both groaned in unison. "I see nooooothinggggg..."

Then we got closer and saw that there were some people sitting on the ground. "Crap," I said. "I have to stop."

"I know," she said with a sigh as I turned on my lights and pulled over. I called it in on the radio, then got out to see what as going on. There was a man sitting on the ground cradling his little girl in his arms. There were no obvious injuries, but both seemed very shaken, and the pickup truck that they'd been in was a mess. I quickly waved to my sister to come check out the little girl and then called the dispatcher and had them send out an ambulance.

Now then, this is why you should ALWAYS WEAR YOUR SEATBELT!!! This little girl had a lot of bruising on her neck and her hips from the seatbelt. She was definitely going to be sore the next day from it.

But she was alive. That pickup trick had been cut off by an 18 wheeler, had spun and flipped, and had finally come to an abrupt stop against the trees that were about twenty feet from the embankment. If not for the seatbelts that the dad and his daughter had been wearing, there absolutely definitely would have been fatalities in that accident. You simply can't bounce around that much in a metal can and not break things that are essential to life.

I'm very glad that I did not have to look at a dead six year old. And I know that father is thanking every god he can think of that he had her in that seatbelt.

After the girl was packed into the ambulance to get checked out, my sister and I continued on our way. I looked over at her and said, "You did say you wanted me to turn on my lights and siren."

She shook her head. "I'll never ask again."