Criminal seat belt ticket in az.

I will say something about seatbelt use, this being in support of it. I'd been hearing much about how it's supposedly "against constitutional freedoms", "it makes it easier to become trapped in a wreck underwater", etc. BS!!

26 years ago, well before I even had a thought about driving truck for a living, I had a nasty winter time collision in which my car, the first front-wheel drive I had owned, started to get out of shape on a slight left bend in the road about 35 mph. The road itself was a snowy, slushy, icy late season mess and the car started slide over to the right side ditch, and I let off the gas, counter steered in the direction of the slide(previously my first car had been the old rear wheel drive, and I spent many years riding and even racing ATVs and now and then on dirt bikes, so counter steering by then was a bit natural for a reaction) , and quickly found out the hard way that that particular technique didn't work well in front wheel drive cars. The car then pivoted around on the now slowed front tires and slid into the oncoming lane, forcing the oncoming car, an old Renault, to t-bone me in the right hand side at the rear passenger seat area. The impact sent me spinning into the ditch. Front the deputy's explaination on the report the impact between the two vehicles was about 60-70 mph. I came to, sat there for a few minutes stunned, the smelled gas, which got me to hit the release on the seat belt and got out FAST, scrambling up the side of the ditch and thinking the car was gonna blow. Fortunately both me and the other driver walked away without injury.

Later I retrieved some things from the car after it had been taken to the wrecker's garage, and notice my driver's seat was bent towards the right and the floor shift lever also bent from the force of my hip, which explained the bruise there. Then i remembered the sheriff telling me if I hadn't had the seat belt on I would have been thrown through my passenger side window and likely killed instantly. From that day on I didn't, and still won't drive a vehicle without that belt on. that strip of webbing kept me from being thrown and it only took me a couple of seconds to hit that release and get out quickly once I had gotten myself composed again after the terror of what just happened. All the "infringement on my freedom" stuff is a bunch of garbage to me after that "form of oppression" saved my bacon.