A van rollover on Highway 218 Monday night illustrated two things very well – it’s important to wear your seat belt, and child safety seats really do save lives.

Thursday, December 16, 1999

A van rollover on Highway 218 Monday night illustrated two things very well – it’s important to wear your seat belt, and child safety seats really do save lives.

According to Misty Conn of Wisconsin, her sister, Starla Mayfield, had been Christmas shopping with her in Wisconsin, then dropped into Austin to visit her grandparents, Phyllis and Pete Peterson. When she headed back to her home in Mason City, Iowa, around 10 p.m., disaster struck.

"She was going south on 218, and there’s a house on the road that’s all decked out in Christmas lights," explained Conn, who like Mayfield comes from Austin. "She was looking at the lights, and when she looked back, she noticed she was headed for the ditch."

Speeds on Highway 218 are not slow, and Mayfield overcorrected, sending her car into the opposite ditch.

"She told my mother, who was at the hospital with her, that she saw a road sign coming, and that’s the last thing she remembers," Conn said.

Mayfield’s van, with her and her 2-year-old daughter Cullia Byte aboard, rolled over into the ditch. Mayfield, who was not wearing a seat belt, was ejected from the van which then rolled over her. Her pelvis was severely crushed.

Her daughter, Cullia, was strapped into a child seat. The side of the child seat was broken in the accident, but the child herself was unharmed.

Mayfield was taken to the Austin Medical Center, then transported to Rochester, where she was held in the intensive care unit overnight. Her condition stabilized, and she regained consciousness Wednesday.

"You know how they show in the videos about car seat safety, where you take the car seat and pull it tight against your knee before you put your baby in it?" Conn asked. "My sister did that every time. I’m a mother of five and I don’t do that – I used to make fun of her for that. She told me ‘Yeah, but you watch, one day it’ll save her life.’"