Wear seat belts - even in the back seat!

[Charles L. Cotton]

In 1967, I was a senior in high school driving back from a speech tournament in Shreveport. On Hwy. 59 about Cleveland there used to be a curve commonly called "deadman's curve." At the time, it was one of the most dangerous sections of Hwy 59. (59 has been widened and rerouted since 1967.)

It was a rainy night and a drunk driver tried to pass in the curve and hit the Jones' family car that was two cars in front of mine. Three of the five people in the car were killed, including the father, a seven year old boy and a four year old girl. The Mom and ten year old daughter were critically injured and spent weeks in Ben Taub Hospital. I won't give the gruesome details or my involvement, but the little Jones boy and girl would have lived, if they been wearing seat belts in the back seat. When everything was over, I got into my car and bucked my seat belt for the first time. Since then, I've worn them every time I'm in a car, whether in the front seat or rear seat.

Watch this video and notice what happens to unrestrained people even when they are not ejected from the vehicle.

Chas.

[Daddio-on-patio]

Having worked several hundred motor vehicle accidents, I've come to the conclusion that it is actually very hard to die in a modern vehicle PROVIDED you follow the instructions- use the seat belt. Just that. Not rocket science. Not hopes and prayers. Not magic chakra rocks. Just buckle up and buckle your children correctly.

The most devastating thing I've ever heard was "i thought he was in there right" - read the instructions ON the car seat. The book is handy, but basic instructions are ON the seat.

Preach it!! Amazing what I have seen people walk away from when they are properly restrained. And when not restrained the injuries I have witnessed that would have been avoided. Yet when I question folks about not wearing their seatbelts I still get stories along this line: "Well, I was in a wreck once and if I was wearing a seatbelt I would be dead." What a bunch if horse hockey.

[philip964]

Lady Di would be alive if she wore her seatbelt in the backseat of her Mercedes. Her front seat body guard was wearing his and survived.

Lady Di would also be alive if she had her car accident in Houston rather than Paris and still did not fasten her seatbelt, but that is for a different thread.

A woman I knew died in a car accident in the front seat with her seat belt fastened. The rear seat passenger was not buckled in and violently struck the rear of the front seat. The seat back failed and she was killed from the impact of the rear seat passenger on her seat back.

[srothstein]

I have lost track of how many accidents I worked. I am a firm believer that, overall, seat belts save lives. Yes, there is a chance that it could kill you, but that is so rare that I wear a seat belt in a car every time and make sure everyone in my car does too.

[PBR]

Yet when I question folks about not wearing their seatbelts I still get stories along this line: "Well, I was in a wreck once and if I was wearing a seatbelt I would be dead." What a bunch if horse hockey.

I can post pictures of my wreck and show that if the driver of the other vehicle would of had his seat belt on he would of died. It's not a bunch of horse hockey, now I know it's rare but I have seen several wrecks where a seat belt did cause the death (use to drive wrecker). With that said it is very very rare and yes seat belt's do save more lives period.

edited: as you can see from the pic he would be dead if was wearing his seat belt but he was ejected and barely even had a scratch on him -- he twisted his ankle is it

[ELB]

I have a attended a quite a few accidents as a first responder, and I quickly noted how many seat-belted people, after rolling their vehicles, simply opened the door and stepped out or crawled out the window on their own with little or no injury.

[LDB415]

Being in a moving car without a seatbelt on is like carrying a pistol without a round in the chamber. Just asking for trouble.

[Jusme]

I have a hard and fast rule whenever I'm driving. The car will not move until everyone is buckled in. I have seen to many ejections, partial ejections, and blunt force trauma from impacting interior vehicle objects, to ever allow anyone riding with me to be unsecured. Does a seatbelt guarantee you will survive any and all wrecks, of course not, but carrying a gun, doesn't guarantee you won't be killed or injured by a BG. I don't play the lottery, or go to casinos to gamble, because the odds are against me. I don't ride without a seatbelt for the same reason. JMHO

[Daddio-on-patio]

Yet when I question folks about not wearing their seatbelts I still get stories along this line: "Well, I was in a wreck once and if I was wearing a seatbelt I would be dead." What a bunch if horse hockey.

I can post pictures of my wreck and show that if the driver of the other vehicle would of had his seat belt on he would of died. It's not a bunch of horse hockey, now I know it's rare but I have seen several wrecks where a seat belt did cause the death (use to drive wrecker). With that said it is very very rare and yes seat belt's do save more lives period.

edited: as you can see from the pic he would be dead if was wearing his seat belt but he was ejected and barely even had a scratch on him -- he twisted his ankle is it

I am not sure which pic you are referring to regarding a twisted ankle. Glad he/she suffered no more than that. When you look at accidents understand there is a lot of motion (physics) involved. One would not be ejected until a force is applied. The person contacting the utility pole would not have been ejected until enough force was applied. So it is subjective to say they would have been killed considering the impact would have had to happen first.
Another thing to consider as brought up by an earlier post in this thread. I worked a fatality that was caused by an Armor All type of product making a vinyl bench seat slick enough that a 60'sh male slid away from the steering wheel in a curve on an FM road. He was not wearing the lap belt which was tucked behind the vinyl bench seat he had just cleaned. He ended up entrapped in the passenger side floor board. Because he slid away from the the wheel due to lateral force as he was following the curve in the road and was not able to control his vehicle it impacted another truck just behind its driver's door going the opposite way. The 16 year old properly restrained female died. The male lived although with serious injury. A lap belt would have prevented the accident.

[oohrah]

While federal law mandated all vehicles be equipped with seat belts in 1968, the first state mandatory laws were not enacted until 84-85, and some as late as the mid-90s.

Until then, there was no culture to wearing seat belts. I never did, until I was picking up a friend of mine at the airport in 1984. He happened to be an astronaut at that time. And the first thing he did when getting in was put on the seat belt, just like automatically. I was slightly embarrassed and put mine on as well. I have buckled up ever since. I figured, he being who he was, he knew something I didn't and I should pay attention.

[bbhack]

Slightly askew the OT, but car safety for certain types of crashes is so much better than 50 years ago as to be almost unbelievable. But driving is still the most dangerous thing we do, and it's done every day.

With autonomous vehicles, things will be maybe another magnitude better. AVs are inevitable, and in my opinion are the only solution to traffic jams where people insist on living too close together.

[The Annoyed Man]

While federal law mandated all vehicles be equipped with seat belts in 1968, the first state mandatory laws were not enacted until 84-85, and some as late as the mid-90s.

Until then, there was no culture to wearing seat belts. I never did, until I was picking up a friend of mine at the airport in 1984. He happened to be an astronaut at that time. And the first thing he did when getting in was put on the seat belt, just like automatically. I was slightly embarrassed and put mine on as well. I have buckled up ever since. I figured, he being who he was, he knew something I didn't and I should pay attention.

I’m I the only one who thinks you should have name-dropped the heck out of that story? COME ON!!!! SPILL THE BEANS!!! Who was it?

[WTR]

While federal law mandated all vehicles be equipped with seat belts in 1968, the first state mandatory laws were not enacted until 84-85, and some as late as the mid-90s.

Until then, there was no culture to wearing seat belts. I never did, until I was picking up a friend of mine at the airport in 1984. He happened to be an astronaut at that time. And the first thing he did when getting in was put on the seat belt, just like automatically. I was slightly embarrassed and put mine on as well. I have buckled up ever since. I figured, he being who he was, he knew something I didn't and I should pay attention.

I have never known anything but set belts. My Dad installed aircraft belts in our cars starting in the late 50s. Has always been normal to me. We lose about one person a week out here when they are ejected and rolled over by their own vehicles.

[Pawpaw]

My first car ('55 Chevy Bel Air w/"three on the tree") did not have seat belts. What it did have was very slippery woven nylon upholstery on those big bench seats.

My aunt went with me to take the driving test in that car. On the way home, as we were approached a railroad crossing (the lights were NOT flashing), I caught a glimpse of motion off to the left and immediately slammed on the brakes. So did all the cars beside and behind me. I can't remember hearing so many tortured tires at one time, before or since. The car came to a stop just inches before colliding with a railroad maintenance engine that zipped across the road.

My aunt slid off the seat, bounced off that big steel dash, and wound up in a heap on the floorboard. Luckily, she was not hurt but she came up fighting mad. Thankfully not at me, but at the railroad workers for not tripping the lighs.

Message NOT received.

A few months later I was going around a left-hand curve. I wasnt going very fast, but even then I knew it was faster than I should have been. Imagine my surprise when I slid out from behind the wheel. A friend was with me and is the only reason I didn't go all the way to the passenger door. He stopped my slide which allowed me to hang onto the wheel and keep the car on the road until I could slide myself back where I needed to be.

MESSAGE RECEIVED!!!

Right then I swore I would always have and use seat belts. I have yet to break that oath.