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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ilaine who wrote (22716)	7/3/2006 7:13:02 AM
From: Lane3	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 541598

They're supposed to save lives, comfort is secondary. Indeed. my thought was "if I modify the seatbelts to accommodate my tall sons and the modifications fail in a bad wreck, can I live with myself?" The answer is no. I'm a Safety Mom. Let them complain, I'm not changing a thing. If it's a comfort issue, as you have apparently decided yours is, then I completely agree with you. If, however, it's a safety issue and you fail to modify to make your sons safer, then no megabucks from Toyota will enable you to live with yourself. and an accident occurs and the safety equipment doesn't do what it's supposed to do, that auto manufacturer just lost several million dollars. "As a lawyer," it's important to think about what the safety equipment is supposed to do, about what "fail" means in this context. What seat belts are supposed to do is to keep you in your seat so you don't go flying around the car or out of the car, so that you don't hit the windshield or worse. That is based on the valid premise that you are safer in your seat, which is true, as far as it goes. Seat belts are directly intended to keep you in your seat and only indirectly to keep you alive by keeping you in your seat. If you are in your seat, the seatbelts have done what they are supposed to do--have not "failed"--and Toyota is not liable. That you are dead from strangulation does not represent failure of the safety equipment or liability to Toyota. That the lawyers at Acura know that is obvious in my communications with the company. They are concerned about liability. Safety is secondary. I know that this last bit does not apply to your situation, just a small, self-indulgent rant on my part.