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Wear Your Safety Belt
nunn
Forums Admins, Member, Moderator Posts: 36,085 ******
I had a chance to watch a short video that illustrates the need for wearing a safety belt. If the car rolls over more than once, and you are not fastened in, you are coming out, and FAST.
Now, I am not for seat belt laws. I think you should wear the belt because it is the smart thing to do, not because it is the law. The law SHOULD exist to protect us from each other, not from ourselves.
The tape was from a police in-car video. The car was in pursuit of a man driving a pickup truck. The speed was not extreme, maybe 70 mph.
The pickup driver went outside on a right turn, slid in the gravel on the left shoulder, crossed over to the right shoulder, slid again, over-corrected and ended up rolling the truck down the middle of the road. The truck rolled MANY times. On the second or third roll, the driver and his dog shot out of the truck. They came out so fast, that we had to slow motion the tape to catch them.
The dog went out the now-broken back window and about 30 feet in the air and came down in the roadway on its hips. Its back was broken immediately, and it died quickly, but it writhed about in obvious pain for several seconds first.
The driver was much luckier. He also shot out the driver-side window, and also went about 30 feet in the air. Fortunately for him, his trajectory took him toward the roadside, where there was a fortuitously-placed juniper tree. The tree broke his fall and he suffered broken bones and cuts, but the tree won't be the same again.
So, law or no law...WEAR THE BELT. Make your kids wear the belt. A humane restraint for old Fido mightn't be such a bad idea either. You can't count on a friendly juniper tree to be there when you need it.
SIG pistol armorer/FFL Dealer/Full time Peace Officer, Moderator of General Discussion Board on Gunbroker. Visit www.gunbroker.com, the best gun auction site on the Net! Email davidnunn@texoma.net
Now, I am not for seat belt laws. I think you should wear the belt because it is the smart thing to do, not because it is the law. The law SHOULD exist to protect us from each other, not from ourselves.
The tape was from a police in-car video. The car was in pursuit of a man driving a pickup truck. The speed was not extreme, maybe 70 mph.
The pickup driver went outside on a right turn, slid in the gravel on the left shoulder, crossed over to the right shoulder, slid again, over-corrected and ended up rolling the truck down the middle of the road. The truck rolled MANY times. On the second or third roll, the driver and his dog shot out of the truck. They came out so fast, that we had to slow motion the tape to catch them.
The dog went out the now-broken back window and about 30 feet in the air and came down in the roadway on its hips. Its back was broken immediately, and it died quickly, but it writhed about in obvious pain for several seconds first.
The driver was much luckier. He also shot out the driver-side window, and also went about 30 feet in the air. Fortunately for him, his trajectory took him toward the roadside, where there was a fortuitously-placed juniper tree. The tree broke his fall and he suffered broken bones and cuts, but the tree won't be the same again.
So, law or no law...WEAR THE BELT. Make your kids wear the belt. A humane restraint for old Fido mightn't be such a bad idea either. You can't count on a friendly juniper tree to be there when you need it.
SIG pistol armorer/FFL Dealer/Full time Peace Officer, Moderator of General Discussion Board on Gunbroker. Visit www.gunbroker.com, the best gun auction site on the Net! Email davidnunn@texoma.net
Comments
I was hit by a drunk driver.. hit my side (driver).. his mirror broke my window, and severed my carotid artery... I was told that if I had NOT have been wearing my seat belt, the mirror would have pushed me away from it and I would have been fine.. well no severed artery at least...
I also had a sverely bruised rib cage from the belt.. the one that comes across the chest...so thanks to a belt, I now have to be monitored for scar tissue building up at the site of the artery where it was stitched..and that will involve surgery to clear away the scar tissue...
Belts may be fine in some accidents, like a roll over.. but not in mine...
One woman's opinion
i wrote an accident almost the same as your, car was hit square in the drivers door at an intersection, both were doing about 30mph. the driver in the car that was hit in the door was not wearing her seat belt, so her body reacted to the force and the top half of her body went out thru the glass of driverside door window, first, then her whole body flew the other way across the front seat driving her head into the pass. side door frame. they do not know which inpact killer her, but if she was straped in the seat she most likely would be alive today. the mirror may have cut you but you were still alive to be taken to the hospital. dead at the accident is not good. i do not write seatbelt ticket, but i do write car seat tickets, the little ones can not made the choice.
My own sister was burned fatally in a car crash, because she could not get the belt off, and the two males in the car were cowards and exited the car, and did not help.
But when everything is said and done,play the odds, wear the belt.
"If you ain't got pictures, I wasn't there."
Margaret Thatcher
"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics."
Mark Twain
Pack slow, fall stable, pull high, hit dead center.
Edited by - gunpaq on 08/08/2002 08:25:31
WEAR THE DAMN BELT!!!!
Mudge the safe
I can't come to work today. The voices said, STAY HOME AND CLEAN THE GUNS!
Edited by - mudge on 08/08/2002 09:42:12
A great rifle with a junk scope,....is junk.
Carry a knife with you. and use the seat belt
"A wise man is a man that realizes just how little he knows"
I don't mean to preach, but in my experience with rollovers where the occupants aren't secured it's not a freak situation if they're ejected, instead it's a freak deal if they're not. When I arrive at the scene of a bad rollover I expect to find victims outside or under the vehicle. At one accident scene I even located the driver on the roof of a restaurant about 75 ft. from where the car came to rest. If you're ejected during a rollover, even at low highway speeds, you'll stand a 90% chance or better of either breaking your neck or back and being paralyzed or becoming a fatality statistic.
For those of you who can relate incidents where you survived without the use of belts, understand that this was just sheer luck or divine intervention. For each person who can tell these stories there are MANY more who can't. I'm happy to still have you folks around who made out okay, but I've seen a lot more who didn't. For whatever reason, it just wasn't your time.
Be careful when relating your incident to others because you're a member of a very small group and should be giving thanks daily that you're still walking. These stories can be interesting, but if you don't put it in the proper context you're not doing people any favors.
I know one lady who goes around with an empty sleeve after such a crash, and a friend's father died from blood loss after his arm was crushed between the door and the ground.
SIG pistol armorer/FFL Dealer/Full time Peace Officer, Moderator of General Discussion Board on Gunbroker. Visit www.gunbroker.com, the best gun auction site on the Net! Email davidnunn@texoma.net
***There's a difference between living and living well!***
But it's a free country.....up to you.
Like in the NFL, defense is the key.
As it all turned out, me and my wife had about 10 weeks of physical therepy in order to work out the torn muscles she suffered and the cracked vertibre I had recieved.
I think I was especially lucky, and am pretty convinced that I will wear my belt whenever on the open road, because before that day, I never did.
Reserving my Right to Arm Bears!!!!
Given the choice of hitting an animal or a tree, take the animal.
A sideswipe of a vehicle going the same direction as you is preferable to a collision with a car head-on, or a fixed object.
Wife had a wreck one day by not knowing what was around her. She was following too close to the car ahead. Mistake #1. The car ahead stopped suddenly to avoid a dog. Mistake #2. Wife did not have time to check the lane to her right and she had not been keeping track of it. That lane was clear and had she simply changed lanes, she would have avoided the accident. Mistake #3. So, instead of just swerving around, she hit the car ahead. Bad move.
Generally, jamming on the brakes and hoping for the best doesn't work.
SIG pistol armorer/FFL Dealer/Full time Peace Officer, Moderator of General Discussion Board on Gunbroker. Visit www.gunbroker.com, the best gun auction site on the Net! Email davidnunn@texoma.net
Common Sense is an Uncommon Virtue.
SIG pistol armorer/FFL Dealer/Full time Peace Officer, Moderator of General Discussion Board on Gunbroker. Visit www.gunbroker.com, the best gun auction site on the Net! Email davidnunn@texoma.net
The news media is funny about seat belts. If someone is killed in a auto accident they will always say they was not wearing a seat belt or not mention it at all. I have yet to hear them say someone was killed while wearing one.
I wore one before it was required by law in my state and if it was repealed tomorrow I'd continue to wear it. It's for the same reason that I purchased and wore body armor before it was required by departmental policy-common sense.
Edited by - Txs on 08/10/2002 18:40:07
No, although the rest of the family is from West Virginia, he's lived in Florida for some time.