I feel like I’m going to fall out of the car if I don’t wear a seat belt.
I remember as kids being all over the car on long trips. Absolutely insane, looking back.
Before the Texas seat-belt laws became effective in the late 70's, I was already beginning to wear my seat belt just to develop the habit. The few times I failed to do it made me feel very vulnerable as well.
Me too. My sister and I decided our parents were trying to kill us (I grew up in the 50s) because not only didn’t we wear seat belts, our mother smoked as she drove and we were always crawling back and forth between the seats (well, until she told us to stop).
I think current child regulations may be a little excessive, but now - especially after that one experience - I realize that we’re sort of like pieces of popcorn in the popper once the car gets hit. Laws of physics...the car stops, but unless we’re attached to the car, we keep on going. Not to mention when the door pops open and you just get ejected.
I had to translate a case where an attorney’s son was killed in a relatively minor head-on collision because he was thrown from the car. I think, sad to say, the attorney was looking for someone to sue. But everybody else walked away from the collision, where the vehicle rolled over a couple of times, except his son, who had been at the wheel and was not wearing a seat belt and was thrown from the car. Oh...and he obviously wasn’t paying attention and had crossed into the other lane. Even so, it was at a low speed and the other driver wasn’t injured.
I think seat belts offer major protection in minor crashes, which actually take a lot of lives. Most crashes happen within one mile of home and not at a high speed.