Saved by the belt

The Zanesville Post of the State Highway Patrol is honoring a local man with the “Saved by the Belt” award.

Michael Grigg was delivering pizzas on October 1st of last year when a driver went left-of-center on Adams Lane and hit his car head on.

“When you look at photos of the crash you see that the front end of his car is completely crushed in and Michael came out of it reletively unscathed and he did that because he was wearing his seat belt,” said Lt. Russell Pasqualetti, Zanesville Highway Patrol post commander.

More than 1200 people were killed on Ohio roadways in 2020 and in 58 percent of those crashes victims were not wearing a seat belt.

The “Saved by the Belt” award honors those who have survived dangerous crashes while utilizing their seat belts.

“I thought it was interesting. I mean I’ve never got an award or anything like this before and I had no idea they actually did this, but it’s honestly pretty cool because it shows they care and are trying to get people to wear more seat belts,” said Michael Grigg, award recipient.

Currently 86 percent of Ohioans buckle up and the patrol is hoping highlighting the life saving importance of a seat belt will help increase those numbers.