Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site minn-ua.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!we13!ihnp4!stolaf!umn-cs!minn-ua!sew
From: sew@minn-ua.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.auto
Subject: Re: Seatbelt discussion -- new twist - (nf)
Message-ID: <937@minn-ua.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 2-Feb-84 13:26:26 EST
Article-I.D.: minn-ua.937
Posted: Thu Feb  2 13:26:26 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 8-Feb-84 05:45:31 EST
Sender: notes@minn-ua.UUCP
Organization: Univ. of Minn. Computer Center, Minneapolis
Lines: 33

#R:whuxj:-9300:minn-ua:3100001:000:1839
minn-ua!sew    Feb  2 11:40:00 1984

Seatbelts can be dangerous to your person and property.

I once found nicely polished ice just before a sharp turn on a country road.
I was doing 40 at the time, and couldn't change that fact before the turn
started.  The road went west, I went northwest.  Fortunately, before I left the
road I was able to bounce the car off the snowbanks by the side of the road and
go off-road at an angle which slowed me down quickly.  The car and I stopped
not too far off the road, and a plentiful two inches ahead of the tree.  But 
while I was ruddering through the snow I got a bruise on my hip where the seat
belt held me in place!

Two years ago I rearended someone on an icy street (I don't care for ice much,
but we have a bit of it here in Minneapolis).  I was doing 30 and the other
fellow was doing zero (his front end was a bit wrinkled already by the bumper
of the pickup ahead of him).  I had a good two seconds of warning before
hitting (the roads were VERY icy..couldn't slow at all), so my wife and I
braced ourselves.  I had a nice solid steering wheel to hold on to.  When we
hit, my glasses went flying and my flailing arms almost broke them.  If my
seat harness had not been fastened, any possible damage to my glasses could
have been avoided because they would have remained cradled on my nose and
when they reached the steering column they would have been protected by my
nice soft face cradling them. {net.lang fans need to correct me -- I said
I braced myself with plenty of time, and I said that my arms waved around.
That is what I meant.  I did not say that I made my arms move.}

Oh, I should also mention the bruise which my brother got on his head.  He
rolled a pickup in our driveway, and when he released the seatbelt he fell
to the roof of the cab.  Without the belt, he wouldn't have had to worry
about that bruise.