Seat-belt discussion at DeLand High may have saved girl's life

BEACON PHOTO/MARSHA MCLAUGHLIN
Crash scene — Emergency personnel survey the scene of a Sept. 9 crash that injured two DeLand High School students. The girls had seen a driver-safety video at school earlier in the day, and were both wearing their seat belts. The mother of 16-year-old Nikki Lambert, who was in the passenger seat and was most severely injured, said the seat belt saved her daughter's life.

BEACON PHOTO/MARSHA MCLAUGHLIN

By Barb Shepherd
BEACON STAFF WRITER

posted Sep 15, 2009 - 5:25:55pm

A West Volusia teen may be alive today because of a driver-safety video shown in her DeLand High School classroom.

A Lake Helen girl and Danelle "Nikki" Lambert of Orange City were in class together Sept. 9 when Trooper Jason Brooks of the Florida Highway Patrol showed the video Heaven Can Wait, which illustrates what can happen to the human body in a car crash, especially without the protection of a seat belt.

Lambert said she hadn't been a regular seat-belt user, but after seeing the video, agreed with her friend that it was a good idea. Family members and friends said the friend always wore her seat belt.

"Watching the video, me and her both looked at each other and said, 'We should really wear our seat belts,'" Lambert recalled.

Later that afternoon in Downtown DeLand, the two girls were, indeed, wearing their seat belts when a commercial box truck crashed into the Toyota pickup the Lake Helen teen was driving, with Lambert as her passenger.

"The seat belt, it broke my pelvic bone, but it saved my life," Lambert said.

Lambert was on the passenger side of the truck, where the impact occurred. After the crash, the pickup hit the curb, rolled over and came to rest against a tree, crushed by the truck. Lambert, 16, had to be cut from the vehicle.

Her mother, Diane Lambert, said rescue workers told her her daughter, unconscious, had hung inside the crushed Toyota, supported only by her seat belt, for 35-40 minutes while emergency personnel worked to get her out.

"If she had not had that seat belt on, she would have been crushed," Diane Lambert said.

Nikki Lambert remains in Halifax Health Medical Center in Daytona Beach, recovering from the broken pelvis and other injuries. The 17-year-old driver was less severely injured, and was released from the hospital the day of the crash.

The two girls have been friends since sixth grade.

"I'm good," Lambert said, from her hospital bed. "I'm just thankful that I wore my seat belt."

DHS teacher Annamaria Zeoli had asked Trooper Brooks to come speak to her Bulldog 101 class about driver safety.

Bulldog 101 is a character-education class for younger students. Zeoli asked Brooks to stay a little longer and speak with her older students who are of driving age.

"I have had these students for two years, and was concerned about their driving habits," Zeoli said.

It turned out to be a providential concern, especially where Lambert was concerned.

"Her mother told me at the hospital that her daughter was not in the habit of wearing her seat belt, and because of the presentation in my class, she is alive," Zeoli said.

Trooper Brooks visited Nikki Lambert in the hospital, and the family had a chance to thank him for his presentation, including a big grateful hug from Nikki's mom.

"We're so thankful," Diane Lambert said. "We're just very thankful she had her seat belt on."

According to the DeLand Police report on the crash, the driver was cited for running the stop sign at the intersection of South Alabama Avenue and East Howry Avenue.

The driver's mother said her daughter had not seen the stop sign because it was obscured by the branches of nearby trees planted in the right of way along Alabama Avenue.

She said the family took photos of the obstruction the day after the crash. The following day, Sept. 11, a city crew trimmed the branches.

— info@beacononlinenews.com

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