Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10 beta 3/9/83; site wbux5.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!hou3c!hocda!houxm!houxf!wbux5!lat From: lat@wbux5.UUCP Newsgroups: net.auto Subject: Re: mandatory seatbelt laws (personal experience) Message-ID: <150@wbux5.UUCP> Date: Mon, 30-Jan-84 22:14:11 EST Article-I.D.: wbux5.150 Posted: Mon Jan 30 22:14:11 1984 Date-Received: Mon, 6-Feb-84 15:46:11 EST References: <3438@tekecs.UUCP>, <525@ihuxn.UUCP> <235@charm.UUCP>, <868@ihuxl.UUCP> Organization: Central Services Organization, West Long Branch, NJ Lines: 67 [yummm...this line tastes good (not THAT kind of line, silly)] Well, I just couldn't stay out of this one any longer. Here's my $0.02 worth on this subject. I never used to wear seatbelts. Sometimes I still forget to put them (it, whatever) on when I get into a car. But then again, old habits die hard. Fortunately, most of my friends wear seatbelts, and that helps to reinforce this "habit". I learned the hard way about wearing (or should I say not wearing) seatbelts. I have been involved in 3 major car accidents -- two when I was the driver and one when I wasn't. All three times, I was not wearing a seatbelt. The first time, I lost control of my '73 Gremlin and ran head on into a tree doing about 45 miles an hour. The whole car was totaled. I flattened out the steering wheel, hit my head on the windshield, and then broke the back of the bucket seat from the force of impact. I had stitches in the corner of my eye, and stitches on my kneecap. I will always have the scars. I was also told that I was lucky to be alive, considering I wasn't wearing a seatbelt. Thank god I was by myself... if there was anyone in the passenger seat, and they weren't wearing a seatbelt, they would be dead. Need I say more about this one? But I thought I was invincible (I was 18 at the time). So, it was only natural for me to not wear a seatbelt. The second accident was in my '73 Opel. I hit a patch of ice (we had no idea that it had gotten slippery out, and it was a thin glaze, not something you were immediately aware of...by the time we realized it, it was too late). I slid around the corner, across the road, and into the wooden guard posts, which, needless to say, won the fight. They didn't even budge. I still have the picture of the car. The front end of the driver's side was totaled, the frame was completely out of shape, the passenger side window shattered. I hit my head on the steering wheel, and my passenger hit her head on the dash. But, once again, nobody was seriously hurt, besides my Opel. So I really didn't learn my lesson. The third time, I wasn't driving. I was a passenger in my friend Dave's Maverick. No seatbelts. He took a corner too fast (no flames please, unless you are a perfect driver, of which there are none), and we went over the wall and took a three foot drop. The car landed on the passenger side, and did not have a straight piece of metal or frame left. All four tires were flat, the front side window on the driver's side shattered and fell in on us, and the windshield shattered and, luckily, fell outside instead of inside. Miraculously, the side window on my side stayed intact. We both had to go to the hospital...I had done a job on my shoulder, and Dave had broken ribs. If we had had seatbelts on, I don't think we would've gotten as hurt as we did. The injuries resulted from being thrown around the car as we went over the wall. I'm not trying to preach to anyone, and I am not trying to make this a bid for sympathy...all this happened a while ago. I am just trying to get a little first-hand experience into this discussion, rather than some of the second-hand stuff I have been reading. Granted, there is always that one-in-a-million chance that the seatbelt might get jammed and you won't be able to get it undone, but personally, I will take that one-in-a-million chance. (Besides, I already did that when I was just knee-high to a grasshopper...I stuck the buckle into the latch cockeyed, and couldn't get it back out...but that's another story altogether). Laurie [ihnp4, houxf, mhuxt]!wbux5!lat CSO \ 185 Monmouth Parkway \ West Long Branch \ NJ \ 07733 \ (203)-870-7491