Seat belts save lives

My brother told me a new one the other day.
He told me of a car accident in which the 3 seat-belted occupants of the car died in a crash,
but the lone un-seatbelted person in the car lived.
He claimed to have seen it on some tv program, it was a mystery how this could happen, so they recreated the accident.
( computer simulation , I guess).
Looking at the injuries of the occupants and their relative positions in the car, it was determined that the person who was not wearing a seat belt caused the deaths the other three. As the unrestrained passenger bounced around the inside of the car he caused various and deadly injuries to the other passengers, skull fracture to on, something else to another, and when the car came to rest, his unconscious body suffocated the last of the three.


I watch too much tv, alot of the History channel and Discover , and I guess I missed this one. Anyone else heard of anything like this?
RGM

[Spam & Cookies-mmm]

Crash test video.

You can see how the unrestrained dummy becomes a problem.

[JoeBentley]

Seat belts increase your probability of surviving a crash. Yes it is possible for a seat belt to cause you to not survive a particular crash, but over all your safer for wearing one.

So all these stories of "I knew a guy who was in a crash and he would of survived had he not wore his seat belt (or had he not had an airbag, or whatever) while true in a lot of cases, are missing the point.

Anecdote. I once managed to accidently jab myself really good in the eye with the temple to a pair of safety goggles. My eye was bloody for about a week. In that particular incident the safety goggles lessened the safety of my eyes. But I would be foolish to say that because of my one personel experience safety goggles make eyes unsafer. Same logic applies here.

I read it that way first, too, Joe. I think the OP's point was that if the unseatbelted person had it on during the accident, then all of them would survive. This was just a freak case where instead of the unseatbelted dying, their state instead led to other tragedies and it was by freak chance that they themself, survived.

My wording is a bit off, there (soooo tired) but you get the idea.

Originally Posted by JoeBentley

So all these stories of "I knew a guy who was in a crash and he would of survived had he not wore his seat belt (or had he not had an airbag, or whatever) while true in a lot of cases, are missing the point.

You've missed the point of what he's said. Rocket said that, in a crash, a lone, unrestrained individual caused the deaths of the people who were belted up, who would have survived otherwise. Hence, it's not saying that seat belts are bad; instead, they are good while those without them may harm those with.

[quiltsbypam]

Off-topic, but I once got a call from the quiltlet's day care that she'd hurt her eye while putting on safety goggles. Maybe they're more dangerous than we realize.

[Eddylizard]

Originally Posted by Whiteknight

You've missed the point of what he's said. Rocket said that, in a crash, a lone, unrestrained individual caused the deaths of the people who were belted up, who would have survived otherwise. Hence, it's not saying that seat belts are bad; instead, they are good while those without them may harm those with.

This TV advert (follow the links at the top to 'Julie' ) illustrates the point.

Warning - Quite graphic,and a shock moment.

Whiteknight, you got the point exactly.
But when my brother started the story, I thought the angle he was going to take was like what JoeBently mentioned, some far -fetched ancidoteal story where someone can site an accident where the seat belt caused a death. He led me right along by starting the story as everyone died except the one in the seat belt, then we got into what really caused their injuries and death. It made me think twice about those folks in the back seat who refuse to wear a seat belt, they have no idea what damage they could do to the other folks in the car. I wish I could play the vid posted by Spam and Cookes for them before we leave the driveway.
RGM

Last month when we were driving down to Sheffield, my cousin told me that he'd seen a police safety video where one 'un-belted' passenger in a car crash killed 3 'belted' passengers with, if I remember correctly, a series of head-butts. He'd seen it in a lecture so I'll see if I can get hold of it and post it up here.

I really hate those 'Think!' adverts. They really horrify me. I wouldn't even dream of not wearing a seatbelt... probably because I don't trust any other drivers - they're always too close behind me or going too fast or have a shinier car than mine (ok, so maybe the last one's just jealousy).

[DevilBunny]

It's all OK as long as you can wear a seatbelt.

Unless the law's changed since I last looked, 100% of people are required by law to wear seatbelts, but manufacturers are only required by law to fit 95% of people...

[Seaboe Muffinchucker]

Originally Posted by DevilBunny

It's all OK as long as you can wear a seatbelt.

Unless the law's changed since I last looked, 100% of people are required by law to wear seatbelts, but manufacturers are only required by law to fit 95% of people...

Then find a safe and and useful alternative to what the manufacturers install. It might cost you something more, but that's a normal risk of being outside the mainstream.

Seaboe

[marc137]

I remeber one incident where the driver who was not wearing her seatbelt ended up to be the only survivor and her 3 (coincidentialy) friends died. But in her case, she survived because she was ''ejected'' from the car before the fatal crash. I will try to find the exact article.

[Nick Theodorakis]

Originally Posted by marc137

I remeber one incident where the driver who was not wearing her seatbelt ended up to be the only survivor and her 3 (coincidentialy) friends died. But in her case, she survived because she was ''ejected'' from the car before the fatal crash. I will try to find the exact article.

Maybe it was this one.

Kieper, a 21-year-old senior at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, died early Tuesday morning when the Ford Explorer he was a passenger in travelled off an icy section of Interstate 80 and rolled several times in a ditch. Kieper, who was riding in the back seat of the Explorer, was ejected from the vehicle.
. . . .
Derek, who was thrown from the vehicle, was not wearing a seat belt...

No, wait, that says just the opposite.

Maybe it was this one.

... a 10-year-old Van Nuys boy was killed when he was ejected from his father's car, which was struck by a vehicle driven by a suspected drunken driver, police said.

Kevin Gomez was not wearing a seat belt...

No, wrong one again.

Maybe it was this one.

A 26-year-old Kennewick man died late Sunday after driving off Interstate 82 near Benton City.

Sang S. Woo was headed east on the highway about 11 p.m. when he apparently went into the median and rolled his 2005 Cadillac CTS sedan.

Woo was not wearing a seat belt and was thrown from the car, said the Washington State Patrol. He died at the accident scene.

Dang, wrong article again! Maybe I'll just have to keep looking.

Nick

[damian]

Coincidently, I watched a show on NatGeo last night called Crash Science. They postulated that wearing a seatbelt increases you chance of surviving a crash by 3000%.

It is ridiculous that some people still argue against their use.

[snapdragonfly]

My brother represents an auto manufacteror in product liability cases and he investigates car wrecks for a living.

Based purely on his own research and his desire not to die, he WILL. NOT. permit ANYONE to ride in his vehicle unbelted.

There is always the freak accident - like that sad one a couple weeks ago, of the friend of my mom's who died trying to get kids out of a car seat when the car had stalled on a train track. Horrible terrible freak accident. But the odds are so much greater that a seatbelt will save your life.

[frogpond]

I find my seatbelt uncomfortable because it wants to go across my neck but I wear it religiously. I'm so used to it I feel as though I would float up from the seat without it. I have found a clip that fastens to the belt to keep it lower across my torso but wish more vehicle manufacturers would make height-adjustable belts as my mother's Camry had.

When my niece was younger she tried testing me by slipping out of her seatbelt when I was driving her home from school. She quickly gave up when she found that I immediately pulled to the side of the road each time and refused to budge.



P.S. I remember overhearing a surgeon at a hospital tell someone that no one who works in ER drives without a seatbelt.

[iskinner]

We had a family friend who was a highway patrol officer. He told us that he had NEVER had to unbuckle a fatal causality of an auto accident.

As stated many times, there are freak occurrences, but I like the odds of wearing a belt over not wearing one. I think I will now be more aware of the rare times I'm in a vehicle where somebody else "chooses" not to wear one.

[yogi cat]

Well--here it is...
I was in an accident about ten years ago. I had been wearing my seat belt and had taken it off about 10 minutes before the guy hit me. I was LUCKILY ejected from the car and walked away--with one stitch in my elbow and lots of scratches and bruises. My car was upside down, on fire, and completely crashed in on the driver's side when I finally saw it.
I am not saying that it is not statistically safer not to have a seatbelt on, but it makes me kind of queasy to think of what would have happened to me if I had been wearing it, and it irritates me that anyone feels they have the right to tell me that I MUST wear my seat belt by law.

[nomad55]

it took me many years to get used to wearing seatbelts. i hated them and i guess i had an unreasioning fear of them for a long time. however, when a good friend of mine was killed while not wearing hers, that did it, never go anywhere without them now

[Buckle Up]

Originally Posted by frogpond

I have found a clip that fastens to the belt to keep it lower across my torso but wish more vehicle manufacturers would make height-adjustable belts as my mother's Camry had.

Frogpond, kudos for wearing your belt despite the discomfort. I wanted to tell you that some of those clips are better than others; wearing the shoulder strap too low can keep it from doing its job or even cause worse damage. It might not hurt to run into the dealership's service department sometime and have them check to make sure the clip passes inspection and that the belt is worn in the right position. I would hate to see you get hurt.

As you can probably guess by my user name, this is my favorite subject.