My daughter was four years old and riding in the front seat of the car. She was a year out from having to ride in a car seat in the back and was still enjoying her big girl status. When she first started riding up front, we had several minor battles about the seatbelt. She just did not like it. I insisted that she always wear it. It was a safety thing I stressed, just like not talking to strangers. She liked to take her seat belt off or even crawl in the back seat. She thought the inside of the car was her playground. It had been about a month with no seat belt incident so I was hopeful that she was finally accepting the seat belt rule without fussing.

As I drove down the freeway we hit a bit of traffic. It was getting close to rush hour. I lit a cigarette and rolled down the window to let the smoke out of the car. Traffic stopped and started and I continued to smoke while waiting for traffic to make up its mind fast or slow.

Finally we began to move faster and we were back up to the speed limit. I tossed the cigarette out the window as we sped up and rolled up the window.