Seat Belts - Wear Them

For your viewing pleasure, YouTube is full of these.

 

I consider myself lucky. In all the driving I did, I never came across a bloody accident scene. I had passed wrecks that were a good deal away, that I knew the person died, but never saw blood and guts.

 

You were lucky. Very lucky.

 

I was once one of those that didn't wear a seatbelt, but things have changed, maybe age and some common sense. I thing that sort of did me was a accident, A slippery wet afternoon, I truck jackknife on a over pass and hit the barrier and threw him out of the truck and down into the bottom of the interchange. I drove by after it happened. Ever since then, I'm a believer.

 

The footage of that bus driver unbuckled in an air ride seat losing control after hitting a bump should give pause to any truck driver. It's hard to maintain control when you are face down in the passenger foot well. The air ride seat did a good job of mechanical bull.

 

I passed through Joplin, MO tonight. The MODOT had an electronic sign with a state statistic.

"544 Fatalities this year. 60% Unbuckled."

I had no idea the percentage was that high.

 

And your post points out what I've said for years. I firmly believe in both helmets and seat belts. I'm also convinced that they should not be mandated.
Here is just another example of big brother "protecting" us from ourselves. Instead of letting us make our own choices, and then dealing with the consequences.
I said something about "natural selection" a few days ago, in a post, and how government is interfering with it. Of course at least one person took umbrage with the statement. But I stand behind it.

 

I too figured this post would turn into this. After all, the only reason seat belts are around, is to protect life, so there's bound to be stories. We, as truck drivers,( or LEO's) are faced with that every time we go out. Office workers, production workers, whatever, don't deal with it on a daily basis.( maybe for 30 minutes) I feel helmets are a lot different than seat belts. With a bike, there are just too many variables, and most fatalities on bikes is a severe bump on the noggin' (with a helmet, you can live for years as a quadriplegic) I never ride anything like a motorcycle, atv, or snowmobile without one. When I see people without one, it's almost as if they are in total denial, "nothing will happen to me". We can't have zero risk in this world, but you can bend that a little with helmets and seat belts. We tend to forget, at 60mph, we're rushing along at 88 feet per second, which is still pretty dangerous.
To ethos: I hear what you're saying,,,but, all we can go on, is life is precious, and what you say about who dies when , always baffled me. If there is some superior being ( aka God) that I'm face to face with someday, that's going to be my 1st question, why do bad things happen to good people? Like I say, you can cheat death a little with helmets and seatbelts. There are people around today with their loved ones, because they cheated death a little, and had a seatbelt or helmet on.