{"id":135376,"date":"2020-09-23T07:08:06","date_gmt":"2020-09-23T12:08:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=135376"},"modified":"2020-09-24T00:45:20","modified_gmt":"2020-09-24T05:45:20","slug":"haviland-resident-joins-odpss-saved-by-the-belt-club","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2020\/09\/23\/haviland-resident-joins-odpss-saved-by-the-belt-club\/","title":{"rendered":"Area man joins &#8216;Saved by the Belt&#8217; Club"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>VW independent\/submitted information<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Haviland resident Ronald Bendele Jr., joined Ohio\u2019s \u201cSaved by the Belt\u201d Club on Tuesday after his safety belt saved him from sustaining life-threatening injuries. The accident occurred August 4 on U.S. 127 in Paulding County.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignright size-large is-resized\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Saved-by-the-Belt-member-9-2020.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-135377\" width=\"351\" height=\"259\"\/><figcaption>Ronald Bendele Jr. of Haviland (left) receives a &#8220;Saved by the Belt&#8221; Club certificate from Ohio State Highway Patrol Trooper Kevin Krill on Tuesday. <em>Dave Mosier\/Van Wert independent<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Lieutenant Jonathan A. Gray, commander of the Ohio State Highway Patrol\u2019s Van Wert Post, presented him with a \u201cSaved by the Belt\u201d certificate signed by Ohio Department of Public Safety Director Thomas J. Stickrath and Patrol Superintendent Colonel Richard S. Fambro.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cRonald is a living testimony to the effectiveness of safety belts,\u201d Lieutenant Gray said. \u201cEveryone needs to buckle up every trip, every time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Provisional data from 2019 shows 457 people in Ohio were killed in traffic crashes where a safety belt was available, but not in use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The injuries Bendele sustained have kept him off work since the accident, which also totaled his vehicle, but he noted he could have been even worse off if he had not been wearing his seat belt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cHad I not been wearing it, I would have went through the windshield,\u201d Bendele said, noting that he feels everyone should wear a seat belt every time they are in a vehicle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bendele\u2019s vehicle was hit by a driver who was going 65 mph in a 55-mph zone. Fortunately, the driver of the other vehicle was able to swerve slightly and hit Bendele\u2019s car behind the driver\u2019s seat. The Haviland man had cuts and bruises, as well as injuries to his torso and received physical therapy while off work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>Bendele said Tuesday that he was just cleared this week to return to work on Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The \u201cSaved by the Belt\u201d Club is a joint effort by the Ohio Department of Public Safety and more than 400 Ohio law enforcement agencies. This club is designed to recognize people who have benefited from their decision to wear safety belts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bendele also received a \u201cSaved by the Belt\u201d license plate bracket.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>VW independent\/submitted information Haviland resident Ronald Bendele Jr., joined Ohio\u2019s \u201cSaved by the Belt\u201d Club on Tuesday after his safety belt saved him from sustaining life-threatening injuries. The accident occurred August 4 on U.S. 127 in Paulding County. Lieutenant Jonathan A. Gray, commander of the Ohio State Highway Patrol\u2019s Van Wert Post, presented him with [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-135376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-01 03:47:40","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135376"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135376\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}