Contradiction and correction

Some of my nieces apparently have been misinformed about their cousin Amanda's death. First, Carla was driving. Her daughter Jessica was in the front seat. Amanda was in the back seat behind Jessica. It was about 7 p.m., dark on that December evening. It had been misting rain. The road had been recently repaved and was oily. The shoulder had not been paved, so there was a dropoff of a couple of inches on the side of the road. Carla was speeding. The passenger side of the car went off the edge of the road. She pulled it back on the road by turning sharply left (one of the first lessons my driver's ed instructor hammered home--don't overcorrect. Drive yourself slowly at an angle back on to the road.) The wet oily pavement provided no traction, so the car spun across the road and slammed passenger-side into a grove of trees on the opposite side of the road from the direction in which the car had been going before Carla lost control.

Jessica died instantly. Amanda's brain had been torn loose from her brain stem, so in essence, she too was already dead. She was not in a coma unless you count the medical equipment that kept her heart beating until her organs could be harvested. Otherwise, there was not a mark on her.

As to the question of whether a seatbelt with shoulder harness would have saved her: as the sister-in-law of a state trooper, I know that police officers often tell the family of the victim that nothing could have been done. Why add to their pain by saying that the victim was a participant in her own death? If Amanda had been belted in, she would have been leaned back against the seat, not leaning forward over the passenger seat talking to Jessica. She would have had some way to brace herself. As tall as she was, it is doubtful that she would have been decapitated by the seatbelt. Maybe if she'd been as short as most 11-12 year olds--but Amanda was already about 5' 6" or taller. Her back might have been broken. She still might have suffered her fatal brain injury. But I cannot picture decapitation occurring.

Anyway, I just wanted to set the record straight.