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Pastimes : My House
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To: Lazarus_Long who wrote (6832)4/15/2003 4:45:19 AM
From: Solon  Read Replies (1) of 7689
 
"Statistically, seatbelts do save lives. And common sense says they should."

Common sense says they don't. And statistics say they don't.

Most serious injuries (especially in city driving) occur from side collisions or from the sides of vehicles being spun into posts, lamp standards, etc. Good drivers have far better control over how fast they hit anything with the front of their vehicle than they have over avoiding direct side collisions.

In all collisions one wishes to avoid contact with the outside force. Front collisons create a risk for body momentum striking forward in your vehicle with your weight and your speed of forward momentum. The weight is likely between 100 and 200 pounds. Side collisions create the same risk for body momentum...but far more often. They also have the risk of DIRECTLY contacting a mass of several TONS of DIRECT force at anywhere from 5 to 50 miles per hour.

Being strapped against your door will kill you. Being able to avoid the door (even if you subsequently hit it with simple body weight) will simply leave you a wiser person.

The seat belt scam is one of the most ignorant in human history. I remember when the Canadian Government was endorsing urea formaldehyde foam as the wonder insulation. I also remember them paying everybody to have it removed a few years later.

For those who have no intention of taking responsibility for their survival, by all means wear a seat belt. Selt belts will prevent you from hitting your windshield when you drive into a building or something. Keep in mind though that your risk of spinal injuries will be increased. For those who understand that you can be hit at 30 miles an hour and receive nothing but shock if you can keep away from contact with the car sides--while any contact with the car side means instant death...this is your life.

There is only one place where a seat belt is safer. That is in the MIDDLE of the back seat. If you have a child, he/she should be strapped in there. YOU should be against the door and NOT strapped in.

All people unable to respond to an accident about to happen SHOULD be strapped in. But even if they have the ability to fall toward the middle of the seat, I would leave them unstrapped. They can always survive their own weight going into the opposite door. BUT they CANNOT survive a direct hit from another vehicle.

The best thing when facing an inevitable collision which cannot be steered out of is to let go of the wheel and to wedge yourself between the backs of the bucket seats. The car can take tons and tons of forces. It won't feel any pain. Let the car take the force.
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