The campaign, encouraging drivers to use their seat belts or cop a fine between $25 and $200, is in its eighth year.
An accident that happened on the way to the Bell County Youth Fair and Livestock Show added two Salado teens to roadway statistics their friends and families are grateful for, especially the two mothers who want nothing more than to be with their sons this Mother’s Day.
On Feb. 10, Ethan Mitchell and Trey Mohler were traveling to the livestock show at the Expo Center. Ethan, 17, of Salado was driving. Trey, 14, a neighbor and “like a little brother” to Ethan, was asleep in the passenger’s seat. Both were wearing their seat belts.
Biddy Mitchell, Ethan’s mother, was also driving to the livestock show but left ahead of the boys. She watched in the rearview mirror as Trey got into Ethan’s pickup.
Neither had made it to the show when Ethan heard a “pop” and lost control of the truck, which slammed into a culvert, flipped end over end, hit a rock embankment and landed upside down on the side of the road.
When Mrs. Mitchell’s cell phone rang, it was her son. “Mom, I don’t know where I am. I am upside down,” Ethan said.
Mrs. Mitchell knew where her son was. He was about a mile behind her on FM 1670.
She can’t remember turning around to go back to the wreck; she does remember the second call she received from Ethan.
“Mom. I think Trey is dead. He won’t wake up.”
“The Mohlers and my husband and I have been friends forever, we live next door to each other,” Mrs. Mitchell said. “I can remember celebrating with them when she was expecting Trey. All the kids are like my family.
“When I saw the pickup I didn’t realize what it was. It looked like mangled metal on the side of the road,” Mrs. Mitchell said. “I don’t know what thoughts went through my head.”
Thankfully, when she got to the wreck, both boys were standing on the side of the road.
“Seeing the boys standing there … I don’t know what to say,” she said.
The boys were taken to a local hospital by EMS where they were treated for minor injuries. Ethan had a sprained ankle. Trey sprained a wrist, injured his shoulder and needed staples and stitches for cuts on his head.
Today both teens are advocates for wearing seat belts. “I have always been a careful driver. I don’t speed or anything,” Ethan said. “Now I can tell people that wearing a seat belt does save lives. I can say it, and I have proof.”
Benson Kelsey, senior public relations associate for TxDot, said both teens played a very important role in the Click It or Ticket campaign statewide.
“The wrecked truck they were driving in has toured the state,” Benson said. “They bravely shared their story at the launch.”
According to TxDOT statistics, if pickup drivers and passengers are involved in a rollover crash, they are 80 percent more likely to escape death or serious injury if they are wearing seat belts.
“This Mother’s Day may have been very different for us if the boys were not wearing their seat belts,” Ms. Mitchell said.
