Seat belts are a good idea

[HEyHEY]

I've been here just over a month now, and two of the three vehicle deaths have been because of no seatbelt. Both times the victim was thrown from the vehicle.....both times the other person in the vehicle only suffered minor injuries.

BUCKLE UP PEOPLE!



THere my public safety message for the day is done.

[demsrule4life]

1. During 30 years of investigating accidents one thing was very

clear to me, didn't need any studies or statistics, you stand a much better chance of surviving if you stay in the vehicle then when you are ejected from it.

[radwriter0555]

2. YES. People DIE when they get thrown from the car, or thrown around IN it.

in fact, that's what killed Princess Diana. It wasn't the impact per se, but her being tossed around in the car and busting everything in her gut on the seats in front of her.

Paramedics don't scrape people up off the pavement who were wearing seatbelts. They take them to the hospital.

[bowens43]

3. My experience.

About 5 years ago , we had one of our famous ice storms here in NC. I was driving down the road a couple of days after the storm in my Jeep CJ5, the road was mostly clear. I went around a curve and hit a patch of ice. I went off the road and my jeep rolled 2 times and ended up on it's side. I was wearing the lap belt and was unhurt (but a little muddy). The windshield was smashed flat, the roll bar did it's job but the seat belt saved my life. The first words out of the state troopers mouth when he arrived on the scene were 'You were wearing your seat belt, weren't you?'.

[Rainbowreflect]

4. I always wear one, but sometimes they don't work correctly.

My friend who is still in critic condition was wearing his, both lap & shoulder. The lap belt worked but the should one didn't. He went through the windshield and with the lap belt still holding him down and it tore his diaphragm. The doctors said he is lucky he was not ripped in half. Of course if he wasn't wearing it he would have most likely gone through the windshield totally and been killed.

[SheilaT]

5. What's best is an integrated

lap & shoulder belt. The ones where the shoulder belt engages when the door is closed but you need to separately hook up the lap one doesn't seem to be as good. A lot of people forget the lap part, or, as in the case above, the shoulder one might fail.

A couple of years ago I made a left hand turn directly into the path of an oncoming full-sized pick up truck (the accident was totally my fault -- somehow I did not see the vehicle) and fortunately the other driver was able to swerve and impact me on the rear driver's side. My car was totalled, and other than a minor whiplash injury, my seatbelts did exactly what they're designed to do and I walked away unharmed.

No one rides in my car without buckling up.

[Semi_subversive]

6. I realized what a good idea

seat belts were when, 21 years ago, I buckled my oldest boy's car seat securely in the car for his trip home from the hospital. I figured it wouldn't do him a lot of good if we were in an accident and his pop was killed because he wasn't wearing one. Haven't gone sans seat belt since.

[HEyHEY]

7. Sorry to hear that

Are you a Canadian too?

"Realized"

[baldguy]

8. Several years ago . . .

I was stopped at an intersection, waiting for the traffic to clear so I could turn left. When the light changed, all the cars had passed and I proceeded to make my turn.

Except for the guy accelerating to 70 mph to beat the light.

He hit me head-on. I got pushed back about 20 feet, spun around, and ended up facing the opposite way. The other guy careened off me and crashed sideways into a telephone pole. All the stuff that had been in my back seat was now in the front, my glasses flew off my face to the floor by my feet.

The front of the car was so bad the doors couldn't open, I had to push with my legs hard to get out.

The only thing I had was a pulled muscle on my right side.

And *I* got a ticket for failing to yield! I guess reckless driving & speeding on the other guys part didn't count.

[Archae]

9. A survivor here, due to seat belts.

Back in 1980, I was hit head on in a car crash.

I was in a 1971 Gremlin that was hit by a Buick.

Buckling two belts (lap and shoulder) was a pain, so I only had the lap belt on.

So my face smashed the steering wheel, and I had major head injuries.
But without the seat belt I would have been dead.

I don't drive anymore, but when I ride in a car I always buckle up.