Botetourt County woman awarded Bedford’s ‘Saved by the Belt’ award

BEDFORD — As fireworks lit up the sky last Fourth of July, Rachel Correll was there to watch with her 3-year-old daughter, Ashlynne, who saw the spectacle for the first time.

“I didn’t want to miss that,“ said Correll, 23, of Botetourt County.

She nearly did.

The day before, she was involved in a horrific car crash on U.S. 460 at the intersection of Ole Turnpike Road in the city of Bedford. Another vehicle cut in front of her and caused her SUV to overturn several times and land upside down in the road’s median.

Correll was wearing a seat belt and escaped with minor injuries. Emergency workers extracted her from her 2004 Chevrolet Trailblazer as she hung upside down, held in place by her seat belt, which she says possibly saved her life.“I thought it was it,“ Correll said of the crash. “When I lost control, I let go of the steering wheel, covered my face and said ‘God, save me.’”

The City of Bedford Police Department and Virginia Association of Chiefs of Police honored Correll with a “Saved by the Belt” award Tuesday. The award is part of a program used by law enforcement agencies to promote seat belt use in passenger vehicles.

Jim Day, the city’s police chief, said her simple decision to wear a seat belt prevented her from sustaining any major injuries. Correll said she was taken to a Roanoke hospital and released later that day with bumps and bruises.

“Chances are she would have been ejected had she not been wearing her seat belt,“ Day said. “Her car was totaled.“

There were 808 deaths on Virginia’s roads and highways in 2008. Though the number was down from just more than 1,000 in 2007, 364 of last year’s deaths involved cases where victims were not wearing sea belts, said Donald Allen, a law enforcement liaison with the Department of Motor Vehicles.

“A great number of those deaths could have been prevented, without question, had those individuals been restrained,“ Allen said.

Correll still drives by the scene each day on her way to and from her job Blue Ridge Avenue. She still thinks about it, though she said she’s not scared anymore.

A similar wreck happened to her mother on Interstate 81 when she was 13, she said. A truck ran her off the road and caused her to flip several times. Her mother, too, was wearing a seat belt.

“It was something that was in the back of my mind whenever I get into a car,“ Correll said. “You never know what’s going to happen. Even when I’m in the backseat, I put it on. It only takes a second but it could save your life.“