After a Jan. 31 car accident, Kyle Vareberg sits on the 2000 Pontiac Grand Prix he bought four days later. Vareberg says his seat belt saved his life. (Jean Schlegel/VCTR)  

By Jean Schlegel
Valley City Times-Record
Kyle Vareberg of Valley City says wearing his seat belt saved his life.
The 19-year-old was in a car accident Jan. 31 near Oriska, N.D. He rolled his 2001 Buick Century three times and totaled it.
The state Highway Patrol trooper who investigated the crash told Vareberg he shouldn't have survived  because of the way the car rolled. If Vareberg hadn't worn his seat belt, he would have struck his head on the windshield and probably would have broken his neck, killing him, the patrolman says.
But he did wear his seat belt and walked away from the wreck with only three scratches on his left hand.
He did not roll his car due to fast or reckless driving. Highway 32 east of Valley City was icy that January morning. oggy, cold and windy, and Vareberg lost control on a curve.
“Interstate 94 was fine, and as I turned north onto Highway 32, I thought that would be fine, too,” he says.
But he soon found that the road was icy, and he slowed down. About three miles past Oriska he met the curve. He hit the brake too hard with his heavy boot he wasn't used to wearing and flew into the ditch. After rolling three times, he found himself upside down in his car, dangling from his seat belt. He managed to unbuckle, turn his window down and crawled out.
He quickly found his cell phone, but dropped it in the snow, and the battery and wires got wet. He tried to call his mother in Valley City. He could call out, but no one could hear him on the other end. So he texted his mother and told her he had rolled his car. He says that texting her probably wasn't the wisest thing to do because he “freaked her out.”
About 10 minutes after the accident, Cleasa Anderson of Oriska and her passenger drove by. Vareberg ran behind the pickup, waving his arms. Anderson turned around and took him to her home nearby to try to calm him.
“I was so disoriented and in shock,” he says. “(Anderson) was the nicest, nicest lady.”
She let him use her phone. Two of his high school friends, Allison Shea and Sarah Hass, picked him up. They also gave him many hugs, he says.
He had managed to text them after the accident, and they were about 10 miles behind him in another car.
Vareberg, Shea and Hass were going to Finley, N.D., for a speech meet that he had been hired to coach. Shea and Hass were going to help judge the meet. Vareberg, a freshman at Valley City State University, left Valley City at 6:30 a.m.
After the accident the trio continued to Finley for the meet. Vareberg thought it would get his mind off the accident.

Valuable lesson
Vareberg says he's thankful he wore his seat belt that morning.
When he was younger, he talked his parents and sister into wearing theirs on a regular basis. He wore his regularly until he was 17, when he says he became more lax about it. He had the impression that if it were a quick trip, he didn't need it. His accident has changed his mind.
Vareberg's parents, Dave and Shelley, remember well how their son insisted on the whole family wearing their seat belts before the car would move.
“Yes, Kyle is a strong believer in seat belts,” his mother says. She's thankful he is, because he's alive and well today because of it.
“I never would have thought this would happen to me,” he says. “When it does happen, you're very, very thankful for that piece of material.”