We moved to Grass Valley in 1980. After living at Lake of the Pines for several years we eventually moved to Alta Sierra. At that time, we lived on a street named Agnes. Curiously that was my mother’s name. Just a coincidence, but interesting none the less. I remember like it was yesterday that the State of California passed a seat belt law. Once passed you could be cited and fined for not wearing your seat belt. I thought this law was absurd. How in the world were they going to be able to enforce such a law? I was living in Grass Valley, in Alta Sierra and there was no way, I mean no way that I would ever be caught without a seat belt. Plus, I always tried to wear my seat belt anyway. I know that I made a number of comments to anyone who would listen, how stupid I thought this law was and that I would never be paying any fine for non-compliance. It was laughable. So, one day I am driving our VW Bug Convertible to go to work for the day. There was this winding road and it was all down-hill from where we lived to Hiway 49. At the time I had just finished my first cup of coffee and was on my way for the day. I didn’t realize it, but obviously my brakes were not working all that well and I was “riding” the brakes so to speak. This was told to me by the police officer who pulled me over after I reached the bottom of the winding road. He asked me if I was having problems with my brakes. I said that it was something that I needed to look into. He also asked me if I had been wearing my seat belt. Oh my God!! I was not wearing my seat belt. I guess I had forgotten to put it on. Now the person who was sure that something like this would never happen was being given a citation for two things. 1. To go get my brakes checked. And 2. To pay a fine for not wearing my seat belt. NOT WEARING MY SEAT BELT!!! I was beside myself. This couldn’t be happening. Who enforces that law in Grass Valley? What is there, one police officer per 1000 square miles. It had to be nearly impossible for someone to get a ticket for that. The fact remained that I was cited and the fine would have to be paid and I would have to admit to Kathy and the kids that I had received a ticket for not wearing my seat belt. Clearly a “Famous Last Words” moment. Police 1, Cocky Driver 0. They won that one. I will never forget it and I don’t think I have ever not worn my seat belt to this day. They made their point. The law did its job at least for me. I am a big proponent of wearing seat belts and not just because there is a law requiring it. Even if I was in a state without a seatbelt law I would still be in compliance.
The UCLA Seat Belt Team
I want to share a story about a team of students from UCLA that came to North High School and gave us a presentation on wearing seat belts. This had to be funded by the government and was a great presentation. It lasted about an hour. What did I take from this amazing presentation? There were really just two things. 1. If you are in an accident, always be in the larger vehicle. Not that you could always make that happen. But your chances of survival go up quite a bit if you are in the larger vehicle. 2. Always wear a seatbelt. Your chances of survival go up quite a bit if you have your seat belt on. Being thrown out of the vehicle is not a good thing. Going through the windshield or being impaled on whatever is outside the vehicle is bad. Bottom line, after about 50 slides, the two messages that I remembered were the two I listed above. The first one was mostly tied to good luck. Afterall we are talking about an accident. A chance event, an unplanned collision, a wreck, there is no way that you could possibly ensure that you will be in the larger vehicle. In the case of item 2, you have absolute control and that would mean always wearing your seat belt. Message sent… loud and clear. The money spent on the UCLA team did its job.
Deer Encounters
Living in Grass Valley put you in the heart of deer country. Even though I don’t remember a lot of deer crossing signs there were certainly a lot of deer in the area. I will share of few of these incidents that I personally experienced. It seemed like all of these involved my VW Bug Convertible. I was insured by USAA and I am still insured by them to this day. I doubt that I was a customer that they appreciated, but I have spent years trying to make up for all of the deer encounters. First one happened on a road called Ridge Road between Grass Valley and Nevada City. I am driving from one account to the next. This is the middle of the day. All of a sudden, this huge deer comes running up from the ditch on the side of the road. He cannot get his footing. Because of the traffic on Ridge Road, I couldn’t swerve to get out of his way. He keeps trying to get his footing and ends up running into the side of my car. He damaged one of the front fenders. One of the cool things about the VW Bug was that the car had four fenders. Each one was put on with screws and each one could be ordered in-tact and replace the damaged fender. On the Bug there were 4 different fenders. All you needed to do was identify which one and order it. Easy to do and no crazy cost to do it. Over time I actually had to replace 3 of these due to deer encounters. The second one was at the top of a hill on Hiway 49 after dark. The deer literally was crossing the road and ran into my car. He hit the car from the right side and kept going and left me with a dented fender. It all happened really fast and the fix was easy and USAA took care of the claim. The third one, believe it or not, was also on Ridge Road. It was similar to the first one. Again, no animal was hurt in the accident just a nasty dent in my VW Bug. Here is the thing. I had to replace 3 of these. They were not painted but were unpainted primer grey. The car was white with three grey fenders. I was not sure I wanted to get the car painted because of the potential for more deer encounters.
Finally, this one was probably one of the most spectacular ones. It didn’t involve my car, but one morning I am taking the kids to school. There is me and three of my children in the car. We are driving on Highway 49. There is a car about 200 yards in front of us. I see this deer running at full speed toward the highway from the right of the road. He hits the car at full speed does a 360-degree summersault over the car, lands on his feet and keeps running. At the height of the summersault, he had to be 12 feet in the air. I would have given the deer a ten on that move. I don’t know if the person in the car in front of me even knew what had happened. He never slowed down so I am going to think that he didn’t realize what had just happened. Thinking back, I don’t believe that a Deer Crossing Sign would have made any difference in any of these situations. I do believe that deer encounters are all part of life in the foothills of California.
Safety Briefings
When we were in the military, they had these mandatory safety briefings at the base theater for everyone on the base. There was no way to avoid these things. The week prior to any big holiday meant attending the safety briefings. It was required that your wife and any children who were old enough to drive had to attend. I also had to attend and they took role. The purpose of these briefings was to alert every one of the dangers on the highway. They didn’t want anyone to leave the base, but if you must then you needed to be aware of all the potential road hazards. They would show movies made by the highway patrol showing the aftermath of some pretty horrible accidents. I will admit that these did make you think twice about going on any trips on those three-day weekends. These were really hard to watch. I would have promised to not leave the base if that would have allowed me and my wife not to see these movies. Sorry, no excuses, no exceptions, you will watch these no matter what. Even with these briefings there were still military personnel who tried to extend their trips and fell asleep and got into accidents… some fatal ones. I guess the briefings may have saved some lives but the daily bulletin included stories about accidents that involved people from the base after every three-day weekend. Some things you cannot eliminate… they are bound to happen.
