For Bethany Benson, 22, the ride back from her aunt’s house in Michigan to her home is Oshawa should have been like any other. With her boyfriend at the time behind the wheel, she comfortably reclined her seat and propped her feet up on the dashboard to enjoy the beautiful sunset.
But, little did she know, that action would change her life forever.
Bethany was like any other college intellect. She was fluent in French, close to completing her degrees in History, French and Education, and she had plans on being a teacher.
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On that fateful ride home, a small car and a motorcycle were involved in a collision that caused a chain reaction of accidents. When the driver of a tracker trailer in front of Bethany’s car slammed on his brakes, her boyfriend could not stop fast enough. They crashed into the jumble collision.
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Looking at photos of the car, it’s hard to believe Bethany and her boyfriend survived. He would require 100 stitches, but Bethany would have her life altered because of a decision she made to get more comfortable before nodding off.
“I always used to put my feet up” in a car, she said. “It’s easier on the back if you have your feet up. I never even thought that it could be so dangerous.”
We all know that airbags are meant to provide protection in the event of a sudden collision. NHTSA says that because airbags deploy so rapidly, serious, or even fatal, injuries are likely if the “occupant is too close the airbag when it first begins to deploy.
Because the airbags hit her hamstrings with force, her knees violently hit her face. Her injuries included eye socket and cheekbone fractures. She broke her nose, eight bones in her left foot, and three bones in her right foot. Those external injuries have since healed, but bleeding in her brain has resulted in irreversible effects. The enduring pain that she feels every day is indescribable.
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I am surely guilty of this, but thanks to this story, I will never ride like that again.
Let this story teach us all a very important lesson.
Please SHARE Bethany’s unbelievable story.
