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LEHI — A photo taped in a Lehi man's car may have saved his life in a crash.
Michael Simkins was in a multicar pileup on I-15 in Draper on Thursday. He was taken to the hospital to get checked out and was released the same day, but a Utah Highway Patrolman said Simkins would have gone through the windshield without his seat belt.
The trooper was going through Simkins' car for any paperwork to bring to the hospital and noticed a photo taped in the car of Simkins' wife, Alyson, and son, Cortlen. It said, “Wear your seat belt for us.”
"The officer said that's one of the coolest reminders (he's) seen to get people to wear their seat belt," Alyson Simkins said.
She said she tried nagging and phone reminders first before putting the photo in her husband’s car.
"I had to get something that would really make him to want to do it," she said.
She lost a friend in high school who was not buckled up and has been passionate about it ever since.
“Having him back home, I was thinking of how he kissed me goodbye before he left for work, and that would have been the last time I saw him,” she said. “It’s so important to wear your seat belt.”
