I was reading a magazine article today about a girl who, when she was a teenager, had an accident that rendered her paralysed.
Right after the accident, this girl was obviously distraught, fearful that her life was over, and unable to come to terms with her new situation. She struggled with the idea of being wheelchair bound and took some time to adjust her mental attitude. She is now able to feel confident about herself and is able to live independently.
It was meant to be a story about people who have the strength to overcome huge obstacles in their lives and be able to carry on. And I guess it was, but the cynical bitch in me got more than a little annoyed about how she came to be in this situation.
As a teen it was popular for people in her group of friends to go driving through the bush, off-road, in a four-wheel drive. As teens do, they also might go a little faster than they ought to.
What I found profoundly stupid was that she also elected to not wear a seat-belt during these excursions. Also, there was a point right before the accident when the driver was going a little too fast over bumpy roads and she expressed some concern, but still did not put on her seat-belt. The accident occurred when they were going too fast over a large bump, and because she wasn’t wearing a seat-belt, she was thrown into the air and her bent head slammed into the ceiling of the car.
The article also mentioned that when she was coming to terms with being paralysed for the rest of her life, there were cries of “Why me?” and “How did this happen?” and “It’s not fair”.
I don’t know about you, but it sure sounds like those rhetorical questions can be answered with “Well, you chose not to wear your seat-belt (which is against the law in this country, where your accident occurred) when your friends were driving unsafely on uneven ground in the bush.”
