The State Patrol in our area has been placing a new emphasis on seat belt enforcement recently. It is sometimes difficult for me to believe that there are people who do not use their safety belts these days. There are so many bad drivers on the roads these says that every time you get out on the road there is always a chance that one of them will cross your path. When I am driving our van especially which has us seated a little higher than cars, I am always amazed at the number of drivers on the freeway who are either texting or doing something else with their phones while traveling 65 or 70mph down the freeway.
In the 25 years that I worked on a fire department, the vast majority of fatalities at motor vehicle accidents that I saw were directly related to people not wearing their seat belts. So I guess that I am a stronger believer in them than most. I also saw many more MVAs with horrific damage to the vehicles where once we managed to extricate the occupants they had only minor injuries which was quite amazing in many cases.
May the two of them rest in peace.
There are people exempt from seat belt laws, delivery people making frequent stops, and cops to name a couple...
I agree, most people will choose to wear seat belts. But I would like it to be my choice, not Big Government’s.
I’m very lucky. Wifey always reminds me to “buckle up” when she is driving. And with that you can draw your own conclusions :)
The couple was ejected from the vehicle and died at the scene, Williams said.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/john-nash-86-dies-car-accident-article-1.2233775
When riding my motorcycle the other day my first thought was “Hey cops! I’m not wearing a seat belt! MUAHAHAHHA!”
Because of the unending poor design of the shoulder harness part of the seat belt. You'd think after 40 years they would design a shoulder harness that doesn't seem to have to position itself around a persons neck. I don't wear Tee shirts nor button the top two buttons on shirts for the same reason. A suit and a tie? Never! I'll rip it off my chest. Lap belts I'm fine with but taking a shoulder/seat belt combination and placing the shoulder harness portion behind my back makes both ineffective.
I think seat belts and even a chest belt are great ideas. Too bad the engineers and designers of them can't seem to focus on making them to where they don't constantly agitate the user by rubbing or pressing the side of their neck due to them being mounted behind and above head level at an angle. That should be an easy enough to resolve issue to design a more user friendly {height adjustable} and comfortable system. Make the shoulder harness portions height adjustable for all and mounted on a locking track instead of the current one size fits all to cover everyone from 4'10 to 6'6" with no consideration where it touches the persons body. Or make an adjustable chest belt built into the seat itself crossways. Even theme park roller coaster rides have better shoulder harnesses. Notice they go down the sides straight up and down away for the persons neck?
Finding the reason as too why people can't or don't wear them is never studied or taken seriously it seems.If it was we'd likely see needed changes made. The basic design has not changed since they first came out you'll notice. Making someone wear them by threat of laws and insurers is their answer. Again the concept is great. The focus on functional comfort has been ignored for decades though.
There was a car crash in CNY last week where two high school senior girls were killed, one being ejected from the car.
I haven’t found anything about whether they were wearing seatbelts or not, but presumably, since the one was ejected, she at least, was not.