Story of a teen’s seat belt left unlatched is part of ‘Click It or Ticket’ campaign

Sarah Snyder rolled herself over in her wheelchair to tell the story.

She has had 21 years to process what happened to her at age 17, when she became paralyzed from the waist down because she failed to wear a seat belt one night.

There was a moment during her talk when, after all the intervening years, a listener could tell she still feels some guilt.

Her message is simple: Wear your seat belt. It’s so easy to do, and it can prevent so much pain.

Snyder, a 38-year-old from Kansas City, Mo., was the human side of a presentation at Wichita City Hall on Wednesday. State transportation spokesmen and local law enforcement officials are publicizing the “Click It or Ticket” enforcement effort. From May 18 through May 31, local, state and national law enforcement agencies will be looking for drivers who aren’t wearing seat belts.

In Kansas, police can stop a person for the sole reason of not wearing a seat belt.

Around Wichita, officers will be focusing on three situations: night-time drivers, who are less likely to use a seat belt; children not in safety restraints; and drivers of pickups and larger vehicles who don’t wear seat belts because they think they are safer because of their vehicle’s size.

The typical driver not using a restraint is a male pickup driver, age 18 to 34, said Chris Bortz, traffic safety manager with the Kansas Department of Transportation. One theory is that those drivers are willing to take the risk.

But Bortz noted that in the big picture, seat belt use is at an all-time high in Kansas, though still slightly below the national average.

Snyder related how she was riding – unbuckled – in a brand-new convertible on a warm night in April 1994 in Parkville, Mo.

A friend who was driving got distracted, and the car veered. The friend yanked the steering wheel, overcompensating. The car began to spin as the friend yelled, “I can’t control it!”

The car flipped, and Snyder was thrown out.

Lying there, she recalled Wednesday, “I couldn’t feel my legs. I couldn’t move my legs, and I was instantly paralyzed at age 17.”

During her talk, her voice didn’t catch, and she didn’t cry – until she related how she saw her parents’ faces as she was rushed into the emergency room. How she felt so guilty. “I’m sorry,” she told them over and over.

She had caused her parents so much pain.

There were other consequences. At the time of the accident, she had an 18-year-old boyfriend. She never heard from him again after he came to the hospital following the accident.

Snyder said she wasn’t telling her story to make people feel sorry for her. She went to college, got a master’s degree, landed a great job and owns her home.

Still, she said, “My injury was 100 percent preventable.” That is the “one thing that truly makes me sad about the injury,” she said after her talk. “That’s while I feel passionate about it.”

Another speaker, James Haan, medical director of trauma services at Via Christi, talked about treating a patient who at 17 was thrown into a windshield because he wasn’t wearing a seat belt.

The impact damaged the teen’s brain so severely, he lives in a nursing home, Haan said.

Looking at the TV cameras recording him Wednesday, Haan said to all the drivers who might be hearing him: “I don’t want to see you this way.”

This story was originally published May 13, 2015 at 4:40 PM with the headline "Story of a teen’s seat belt left unlatched is part of ‘Click It or Ticket’ campaign."