Die in battle, die in bed, but don't die like this.

[Poohbah]

What do Dale Earnhardt and Pink Floyd have in common?

Their last big hit was the wall.

BWAHAHAHA!

[SamAdams76]

I have to agree with you. That video was more comic than anything else. Wearing a seatbelt wasn't going to save that bozo from crashing his car like that. He was falling asleep at the wheel! What a doofus!

[grellis]

I'm with you. I live in Michigan and we've been a state big on seat-belt enforcement for a long time. Many of our cities had seatbelt laws before it was state mandated. The funny thing is, I NEVER wore one until I got married and moved down to Kentucky. We lived off-post near Fort Knox. To enter the post you had to pass through a checkpoint. If you didn't have a seatbelt on the guys manning the post would read you the riot act for ten minutes. I got into the habit back then and its never left me.

This post is bound to generate dozens of "but I don't want the government to blah blah blah." Well, I'd like to extend a big thank you to all the idiots killed and maimed in car accidents when they weren't wearing a seatbelt. Would you like to pay my auto insurance for me?

[Poohbah]

His facial expression when he realized he was about to go splat was a Kodak moment, though...

[grellis]

Keeping people from doing stupid things to themselves is not the proper function of government in a free society.

My auto insurance isn't free. No such thing. The fact is, everyone who has to insure an automobile pays for the stupidity of those who won't wear seatbelts.

[mollynme]

Maybe the way to deal with this is for insurance companies to insert clauses that say if it is proven that the victim was not wearing a seatbelt, they don't have to pay up.

[Agnes Heep]

I am all for wearing seat belts but I don't want the government forcing me to do it.

I'm with you. But I think it's funny that there are people who think that not using one is a positive good, simply because others want to force it on them. I think they're confusing the issue.

I used to work at a printing company, alongside a busybody proofreader who would actually go back into the press area and tell the pressman to not forget to turn off the presses at the end of the day. They got so pissed off at her for "telling" them to do something so obvious that on a number of occasions they actually left the damned things on.

[grellis]

Ohhhhh, that's a good one. There just aren't enough Pink Floyd jokes these days.

[AmericaUnited]

Some people need to wear a seatbelt while posting... :)

[Old Professer]

I survived a crash in 1963 in a 1962 Corvair and the guy with me died in the fiery aftermath - I was thrown free 500 feet into the bamboo and scub grass along the Florida coast where I lay until morning and walked to the highway. Five cracked ribs, major contusions, a hemo-thorax, a pneumo-thorax and scratches all about my torso.

I never did find my shoes.

Had we not been exceeding the safe speed limit for the vehicle in which we were riding, we likely would not have been wrecked when we hit the crosswind from the off-shore breeze.

Life is one big risk; nothing eliminates that.

[Alberta's Child]

The state of Minnesota has a law that reduces all civil damages by 50% in cases where the plaintiff was involved in a car accident while not wearing a seatbelt.

[Hillary's Lovely Legs]

This was my car. It is upside down in a farmer's field because I did an end over end backwards when I hit black ice coming down a bluff in the middle of winter, on the highway, in Wyoming.

My girlfriend and I walked away from this accident. We were both wearing seatbelts.

[e_castillo]

Maybe the way to deal with this is for insurance companies to insert clauses that say if it is proven that the victim was not wearing a seatbelt, they don't have to pay up.

And lets says also that the ambulance needs cash up front for treatment and transport to the hospital etc...

[cyborg]

I think I'll be wearing mine 100% from now on!

[grellis]

Many auto companies do something similar to what you are suggesting: they offer discounts on cars that have automatic seatbelts. I don't know how they handle payout when it is shown that a driver or passenger was injured while not buckled. My sister is in insurance, though, and I'll ask her tomorrow.

[dandi]

Good point. I'm willing to forego seatbelt laws as long as there's a law making the driver or passenger totally responsible financially for the injuries incurred, with exceptions in the event of it being another driver's fault. Same goes for motorcycle helmets. Don't act recklessly then expect me to pay for it through higher health care and insurance prices.

[tet68]

Seat belts are a good thing - like motorcycle helmets.

If they're so good,
why aren't they manditory on motorcycles?

?*^D

[Old Professer]

Running your mouth often qualifies depending on the venue.

[Cultural Jihad]

Excellent article. Ignore those who think our unalienable rights as mentioned in the DOI include "an early death, slavery to vice, and the pursuit of unneeded suffering." Some people are so mean they would never spit if they ever thought it would do someone some good.

[Old Professer]

People who don't know how to drive should be driven off the highways.