Heinbach urges people
not to allow themselves to be distracted when driving
“My mission on earth isn’t complete” the poster in her
classroom announces. “I think that it
is human for us to be multi-tasking while in the car and to forget the
thousands of pounds of machinery beneath us.”
Linda
Heinbach was driving on Monday, October 8, at about 5 p.m. Reaching for something on the passenger side
of her ‘94 Chevy Blazer, she took her eyes off the road.
Her
Blazer drifted to the right, onto the gravel shoulder of the road. She
over-corrected and her car swerved back across the road. She maneuvered back
into the right lane and thought that she would be all right when her Blazer
flipped over several times. Heinbach ended up in the pasture on the opposite
side of the road.
In
that instant, Heinbach suffered lacerations on her head, a sprained neck area
and multiple bruises.
Thankfully,
she says, she was wearing her seatbelt, or in her words she would have
literally been “splattered across the road.” Heinbach describes herself as
being lucky that no other vehicles were involved because it was at a peak
traffic time when she wrecked.
Almost
immediately, somebody stopped and helped her. From there, she was taken to
Saint Agnes Hospital where she underwent three hours of surgery. She had to
have several staples put under the skin and stitches outside to repair the
lacerations she had received.
Heinbach
is missing hair just above her hairline on the left side of her head, and the
scars are still visible.
Because
of this accident, Heinbach is more thankful to be here and more cautious than
ever. Also, she strongly urges people not to allow themselves to be distracted
when driving.
“My
mission on earth isn’t complete” the poster in her classroom announces. “I
think that it is human for us to be multitasking while in the car and to forget
the thousands of pounds of machinery beneath us,” she says.
The
poster in her classroom also has on it suggestions of what not to do while
driving. Heinbach invites anybody to go to her room and add suggestions to the
poster.
Current
ideas include, cleaning, eating drinking, tuning the car radio, and more.