New York Times: Early Advocate of Seat Belts Now Heads the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

The Three Flags Safety Belt Campaign

The Three Flags Campaign is a cooperative international safety belt campaign which involves hundreds of law enforcement agencies in Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia. Mara Nesbitt-Aldrich addressed participants of the Three Flags Pre-Blitz Workshop. Attendees included police officers and other law enforcement agents, officials from the Oregon Department of Transportation, the Area 10 National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the Washington State Safety Restraint Coalition, and the Washington State Safety Commission.

Hello, my name is Mara Nesbitt-Aldrich, and if you haven't noticed it yet, I'm fat. I also have some problems remembering words, so please forgive me if I seem to search for a phrase or a word. It's due to a car accident I had two years ago.

I am sure you have all seen your share of auto accidents, and are well aware of the dangers associated with not wearing a seat belt.

This is my story. I grew up in New York City and went to a special school for smart kids and teenagers. I had an IQ of 153, and while I wasn't the best student in the class, I did OK. I never tested below the 95th percentile on any intelligence test, and was usually in the 99th + percentile. I did especially well in timed reading comprehension and proofreading. When I was 6 years old I was put on my first diet, and dieted my way up to my present size, about 400 pounds. But how and why I'm fat doesn't matter. I just am.

Almost two years ago, I got married. My husband and I decided to have the ceremony in Las Vegas, and have two receptions: one in New Hampshire and one in Portland. We also took a side-trip to New York City for a few days. I kept all the details for the ceremony, travel arrangements, receptions and side trips in my head. My husband called it "THE LIST". The only thing I wrote down were the names and addresses of the people we invited. We had a lovely wedding in Vegas and reception in New Hampshire. We drove down to New York and on the drive back to New Hampshire we had an accident.

We were in my father-in-law's 1990 Ford Taurus, with me in the passenger seat. It rained a lot that day…3 inches…so we were only driving 50 or 55 on the highway. My husband Roger was belted and had an air bag. My seatbelt was too small for me to fasten, so I was unbelted.

A woman to our right lost control of her minivan, crossed over 2 or 3 lanes of traffic, hit an oil truck to our left and bounced into our lane. We hit her, and I flew forward and broke the windshield with my head. I regained consciousness about a half-hour later, when an EMT was shoving a board under my behind. I was taken to a hospital, observed for brain bleeding and released 6 hours later. My husband walked away from the accident with some bruises on his arm and chest.

At our wedding reception in Portland two weeks after the accident, I was bruised and swollen. I couldn't drink a champagne toast due to the heavy medication I was taking. I was unable to work for 6 months, and had 24-hour a day headaches. I noticed immediately that I was unable to remember certain words and many events and conversations. It seems that I have mild brain damage now. I was tested twice since the accident, and in several of the tests I scored in the 25th percentile, and the 12th percentile for processing information.

As you can imagine, this has changed my life. My memory is full of holes. I don't remember where I put things, I lose checks, I forget whole movies, and I deny having conversations. In other words, I can't trust my memory any more. I also tire a lot easier now and can only work part-time. I used to do a lot of public speaking, and I taught Yoga classes for 15 years until the accident. This is the first public speaking I've done in two years because I fear forgetting words and looking foolish.

The reason I wasn't wearing a seat belt when we had the accident wasn't because I didn't want to. I was not wearing a seat belt because the seat belt was too short for me. I have a DMV waiver in my wallet which says I'm not required to wear a seatbelt, but that piece of paper did nothing to prevent my head from being smashed.

What I need to be able to buckle my seat belt is a seat belt extender which looks like this. As you can see, it can be added or removed from the seat belt with one easy click. However, my extender works only in my car. Each car maker has their own configuration, which can change from year to year and model to model. It costs about $25, but manufacturers who do provide them often give them to customers at no charge. After I recuperated from the accident and started driving again, I spent 8 months trying to get a seat belt extender from Mazda, my own car maker. After dozens of phone calls and letters and a news story on our local NBC affiliate, I finally was able to fasten my seat belt. We were able to get an extender for my husband's Ford in one week.