Treamayne said:
INOT TRUE!!!!!!
Seatbelts are designed for front and rear impact collisions *only*. Any side impact collision is only worsened by wearing a seatbelt. My mother is permanantly handicapped, having crushed 2 vertebrea which were romoved and injuring another, because she wore her seat belt. If she hadn't been buckled she may have been cut but wouldn't have been trapped in her seat and crushed when the car T-boned her. As with anything you take your chances either way... but anyone that says a seat belt will definitely save your life in an auto accident is spouting more BS than a politician caught in a hooker's bed. In many instances, the life it saves for you is worse than death.
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Hhhhmmmmm... I don't know about that... It would seem to me you would be trapped in a side impact if you wore your belt or not... Your legs are under the dashboard, and there is always a transmission hump between (or certainly items which would be in the way if you were hit from the side) which would certainly cause serious injury. No doubt about it, side impacts are terrible. No matter the design of the car, the side panels of the car are not going to take an impact like a head on crash. Most crashes I've seen (and I've seen a lot) are primarily in the front or rear, where the car will offer the most protection. There are also times that no matter if you were wearing your seatbelt or not you're going to be killed in the crash (even a frontal crash).
So - do we plan for a side impact crash - or the possibility our car catches fire or submerges and we feel we might be trapped by the seatbelt - and NOT wear our seatbelt. It seems like a logical argument, but I think statistically you'll be blown away by the differences between wearing and not wearing a belt (and their effect on injuries or mortality)
The odds are VERY great that if you are in a crash, and not belted, you will suffer far worse injuries than if you did not wear your seatbelt. I've seen several ejections in fairly minor collisions where the person (obviously) was unbelted and was killed because they left the vehicle. In one case, the air bag deployed at the first significant event (struck a ditch). The van continued on and struck a number of trees before finally coming to rest. The driver, unbelted, was thrown through the windshield and ran over by the van (killing him).
I have seen persons killed in an ejection, and have yet to seen anyone trapped in a car because they couldn't get their belt off. As a matter of fact, the last submersion I saw, the two woman in the car were both unbelted but still couldn't get out of the vehicle...
Even in a minor crash (say a rear-ender), someone unbelted will fly forward and strike the windshield with their head. Let me tell you, you hit your head on the windshield hard enough to crack it you're going to feel some ill effects!! I have had a least one person die as a result of hitting their head on the windshield in a fairly minor crash (between 25 and 30 mph) - spooky because I had a rather lengthy conversation with her at the scene, and learned she died about an hour later...
Do I wear a belt - YOU BETCHA!!!! It's the BEST protection if you're in an accident. And I gotta tell you - it's not a decision you can make when the series of collision events begins. You can't put you're belt on when you are about to hit someone (or they're about to hit you)!!!