Seatbelts

If you carry a partially serrated knife on your hip, a stuck belt latch is not a problem. Unless both your arms are broke, then good luck crawling out anyway.

 

I've been thrown around in a cab, during a wreck and have a fractured lumbar vertebrae to show for it, for the last 33 1/2 years. Ever since then, the belt gets buckled, before the brakes get released.

 

whats a seatbelt?

 

Years ago when I drove for Ryder they furnished $100,000.00 accidental life insurance, but if you got killed with your seatbelt on they would double that amount. I was never interested in collecting but I figured what the hell, if they had that much faith in them I might as well wear the darn thing just so my family could get the extra money if anything did happen, and I've been wearing one ever since.

 

Hit a tree head-on in a '64 Corvair convertible. No seatbelt on and went right thru the roof. Only thing that saved me, probably, was that I was drunk on my butt and just went limp. Anyway, just split my head open and spent overnight in the hospital. Ever since, seatbelt on and NO alcohol! By the way, was 18 at the time....young dumb and full of c**. The lessons we learn, some harder than others.

 

While I appreciate the personal choice thing (and I have always been opposed to laws or regs requiring use), my individual choice is to always buckle up. As a former LEO, I have seen many people killed while not using a seat belt, very few killed while using them, and I have never seen someone killed because they were trapped while wearing one.

"If" it is an individuals choice to buck the odds and not use a seat belt when there is one literally at their finger tips, and the likelyhood of being trapped by a seatbelt is so minute' as compared to the likelyhood of being either ejected, bounced around inside a vehicle and severely injured or killed, or killed on impact, then I am certainly all for an individual to make the decision to use or not use a seatbelt based on their individual choice, rather than on any factual information. Doesn't make much sense though.

Best regards

 

I always wear mine.

 

If you get in a wreck in a semi and it's bad enough to trap you inside, wouldn't you have a better chance of getting out if you were conscious and unscathed vs. what would happen if you were thrown all about the cab, or out of the cab?

 

Its a habbit to put on a seat belt in a comercial vehicle dont even realize I do it. In a personal vehicle I used to not but since I got pulled over twice in texas for it with just warnings I wont take the chance on the third one.