Veteran police officer believes seat belt saved his son's life during bad crash

GAINESVILLE, Ga. - It can be a parent's worst nightmare, getting a call late one night that your child has been in a bad crash. For a veteran Gainesville police officer, he knows what it's like to make those awful calls to parents and now he knows what it's like being on the receiving end of one.

Across the nation and here in Georgia, the DOT says there's been a troubling trend on our roads. They're investigating an increase in deadly wrecks where people were not wearing their seat belts.

Gainesville Police Officer Griggs Wall believes his son is only here today because he buckled up. Officer Wall and his 20-year-old son, John are still reeling after a Memorial Day crash in the rain that could have turned deadly.

"I was up later than I normally am and I got a phone call. I didn't recognize the number but I still answered it and it was him on the other end of the phone and I knew when he started talking, I knew something was wrong," recalls Gainesville Police Officer Griggs Wall.

"I hit just a little bump in the road and my tires didn't catch traction and just caught water. I started going to the right and I tried to correct a little bit, I guess I overcorrected and it did a 180 around and then it went right in the ditch and smacked into the tree," John Wall recalls.

Officer Wall spent years as a fatality investigator, responding to deadly wrecks that looked like this his sons crash. "When you pull up and you see the fire trucks and the ambulances and law enforcement there, your mind is still racing a hundred different directions," explains Officer Wall. "It did shake me up from the crashes I've investigated. Looking at that truck that that's not a crash that people walk away from."

John believes his seat belt saved his life that night. "I probably would have gone through the windshield. I probably would have been crushed too.  It would have been bad in so many different ways," he says.

Buckling up is something many of us don't think twice about, but Georgia DOT leaders say of the more than 1,500 deaths last year 56 percent were not wearing a seat belt. They call it an alarming number.

"I actually have a friend that doesn't wear his seat belt and I try to get him to wear it all the time. He never puts it on, he just gets in the car and just goes. I always put mine on because you never know when that moment is going to hit," adds John.

Natalie Dale, a spokesperson for the Georgia DOT says so far this year the dangerous trend continues. So far in 2018, in 64 percent of fatalities they cannot confirm seat belts were being worn.

Transportation leaders say the new numbers could go along with the rise in popularity of ride share services like Uber and Lyft. They stress that not only is it the law, but it's still very important to put on your seat belt even when you're a passenger.