Please wear your seatbelt.

Last night, I was startled awake by a - spoiler alert - crash. When I tried to describe it to Mr. T, I said it "sounded like a big truck dumping a load of metal into our backyard." He tried to convince me that it was just our neighbor taking out his trash barrel (which unfortunately is a common 2 a.m. occurrence). But it wasn't trash day, and the dog next door was much more upset than he would be about trash.

I looked out our back bedroom window - which faces a major street - but didn't see anything. Mr. T wandered downstairs and looked out the front. Nothing. We got back into bed, but my Law & Order-saturated mind kept spinning scenarios involving drug runners or illegal immigrants or someone jumping into our yard.

Less than five minutes after I first heard the noise, I heard the sirens.

Two minutes after that, we looked out the window and saw three firetrucks, three ambulances, and a host of police vehicles.


And from our corner bathroom window, we saw an SUV on its side and EMTs running into the drainage ditch with boards. We watched for an hour as they rescued two people, sent one in an ambulance, and worked on another until a helicopter landed on our street to take him to - we assume - a hospital with a Level I trauma center.

I said a prayer for the passengers and their families.

All night, various crews stayed to clean up and take evidence (in fact, the street wasn't reopened until nearly 8 a.m.). We lied in bed listening and talking about how lucky we were that this didn't happen to us. And the main difference was that Mr. T was wearing his seatbelt.

I scoured the news today and eventually learned that the passenger will be fine, but the driver (the one taken away in the helicopter) died. I also saw that, in a separate accident yesterday, two little boys lost their mother when she was ejected from their truck because she wasn't wearing her seatbelt.

I generally keep the tone on this blog light (and Lorin-centered), but I felt the need for a PSA today.

Please wear your seatbelt. All the time.