MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A local mom’s post about the importance of child safety seats went viral after she shared her eye-opening story of a car wreck on Facebook.
In the post, St. Jude nurse Rebecca Boyer said the incident happened the day she returned to work from maternity leave. Being a “super annoying overprotective mom,” she asked her husband for hourly updates on how her son William was doing that first day apart. Around two in the afternoon, her husband sent her a picture of the little guy passed out asleep in his car seat with the message that they were about to run an errand.
“My nagging wife reply was to correct William’s position in the car seat – the straps were too loose and the chest clip was way too low,” she wrote. “And because I know my husband, I’m sure that he laughed at me and rolled his eyes before tightening the car seat and fixing the chest clip.”
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Less than 30 minutes later she received a phone call that would stop any parent in their tracks.
“Honey, we had a car wreck,” her husband said. “We are fine, but the car is going to be totaled.”
Her boys were less than three miles away from home when they were involved in an accident Boyer said, but thankfully neither of them were seriously injured. Boyer credited that to the car seat and the fact that her husband took those few extra seconds to adjust the straps.
“My precious little bundle of joy was so well restrained in his car seat, THAT HE DIDN’T EVEN WAKE UP.”
She ended her post by encouraging all parents to do what her husband did – take a few seconds to secure your baby.
“All infants should be REAR FACING in the back seat until at least the age of two and snuggly secured in a 5 POINT HARNESS in a car seat base that does not move more than one inch in any direction.”
She even included a link to help other parents learn the proper installation of a car seat.
In three weeks, the post has been shared more than 33,000 times.