Seat belts. I came across this just now

turtlemama

New member
This website gives a bunch of reasons that seatbelts could be dangerous in an accident. I am wondering what the statistics are of these incidents occurring?
I have several relatives that refuse to wear a seatbelt because they say it would kill them instead of save them in an accident. They will not listen to my advice saying otherwise.
http://www.safetyforum.com/seatbelts/
 
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Victorious4

Senior Community Member
I didn't open it yet because I don't know the specifics of when it might be safer not to wear a seatbelt. I do know that the primary purposes of a seatbelt are to prevent the occupant from being ejected from the vehicle (thus reducing the risk of death by about 75% I think?), to reduce the risk of impacting the vehicle interior as well as other occupants & also to spread crash forces out over the strong parts of the body.... I believe that any cases where using a seatbelt would be unsafe is the rare exception to what we know about crash dynamics & physics in general.

ETA: ok my phone let me view it that time . . . I'm multitasking so I only skimmed but I was expecting something different. I thought I was going to read stories about how not wearing the seatbelt was safer in certain accidents, which is most often pretty bogus & naive. This appears to be explaining faulty designs or designs that have been improved in recent years. Yeah, sometimes for various reasons the belt system isn't most ideal, but it's still more ideal than not wearing a belt for the reasons I mentioned above. As far as I know, the problem belt systems described apply to older vehicles, I'm thinking maybe from the pre-LATCH era?

Sent from my iPhone using Car-Seat.Org {please disregard typos!}
 

Mysweethoneybee

New member
My eldest son's high school math teacher was going down the interstate in fog with her husband driving. There was a huge pile up of semis including one on fire and they slid under it. They had to wait for their seat belts to burn through before they could get out of the car. Both the teacher and her husband were severely burned and spend months in the hospital. However they are both quick to point out that if they did not have their seat belts on they would have died on impact.
 

LISmama810

Admin - CPS Technician
Yeah, that doesn't describe instances in which people would be better off without seatbelts. It describes poor seatbelt design and the possibility for failure. Many (if not all) of those issues have been rectified as we learn more and as vehicle manufacturers put more emphasis on safety.

The only argument I've really heard in favor of not wearing a seatbelt (from a safety standpoint) is that it will be harder to escape in a fire. Seriously? Unbuckle with one had while you open the door with the other. :rolleyes:
 

BookMama

Senior Community Member
Many (if not all) of those issues have been rectified as we learn more and as vehicle manufacturers put more emphasis on safety.

Right, and the date at the bottom of that website is 9/99, nearly 11 years ago, which is a very long time when it comes to safety technology.

Not that I'm saying none of the stuff on their page could happen, but there are so very, very many crash scenarios when it's better to be wearing a seatbelt. And I'm not convinced that the people in some of those crashes would have been better without a seatbelt anyway.
 

Ninetales

New member
I know people who think like that. I do not ride with or transport anyone who doesn't buckle up. The ejection risk is bad enough but them becoming a danger to everyone around them is just as bad.
 

hrice

New member
Seatbelts save lives. End of story. We prepare for what is most likely to happen not the opposite.

Same reason rear facing is so important. Frontal and side collisions are far more likely to happen than a severe rear end crash.
 

joolsplus3

Admin - CPS Technician
Nearly 12 years ago, Bookmama :cool:
(just joking how time flies, not picking on you for being a year off, I wouldn't have noticed if you hadn't said anything :love:)
My SSIL was severely injured when his seatbelt broke, but he would have flown through the windshield a lot further if it hadn't slowed some of his momentum, and it probably would have been a lot worse. Made him fairly lax about belt use, especially in the back seat, though, where he figured the front seatback would stop his 190 pounds of mass, I had to give him a tongue lashing for that, and now he wears one.
And Kyle David Miller died, supposedly due to seatbelt failure. So, bad belts are out there, but I imagine they are being improved a lot, and airbags are making up for some of the failures, I suspect?
 

bnsnyde

New member
My grandpa never wore one b/c he said it could kill him. He knew a guy who got in a wreck, and b/c of the seatbelt, could not get out. The car was on fire, and the guy "just tore that seatbelt apart" to escape. That's what he says, anyways.

Everyone else I know wears them.

We do have an emergency cutting tool for seatbelts.
 

An Aurora

Senior Community Member
LISmama810 said:
The only argument I've really heard in favor of not wearing a seatbelt (from a safety standpoint) is that it will be harder to escape in a fire. Seriously? Unbuckle with one had while you open the door with the other. :rolleyes:

Right, sounds simple, but sometimes the belt won't unbuckle. That's why everyone should carry seat belt cutters in a secure location in the vehicle that's also accessible.

Posted by a robot and susceptible to unrelated and potentially inappropriate AutoCorrects.
 

Kac

Ambassador - CPS Technician
In my tech class, one of my instructors said that accidents where people would have survived/been better off without a seatbelt make up less than 1% of all accidents. I'm not sure how accurate that is.
 

Baylor

New member
Right, sounds simple, but sometimes the belt won't unbuckle. That's why everyone should carry seat belt cutters in a secure location in the vehicle that's also accessible.

Posted by a robot and susceptible to unrelated and potentially inappropriate AutoCorrects.

I had this happen to me in a minor Accident. 79 VW rabbit. I hit an embankment after losing control, the car went full on into the ditch and seat belt locked up and the Trooper had to cut me out of it. Still, no belt, no air bag means I would have at least hit the windshield if not been thrown through it.

My brothers friend died at 17 when he was driving too fast, no seat belt, hit a ditch and went through the windshield but only halfway. He bled to death waiting for help.
 

Mysweethoneybee

New member
Right, sounds simple, but sometimes the belt won't unbuckle. That's why everyone should carry seat belt cutters in a secure location in the vehicle that's also accessible.

Posted by a robot and susceptible to unrelated and potentially inappropriate AutoCorrects.

That was the problem my son's teacher had the seat belts wouldn't let go and the buckles wouldn't unbuckle so they had to wait for the fire to burn through them.
Where do you buy seat belt cutters? Hopefully I would never need them but it might be nice to have just in case.
 

sparkyd

Active member
To the OP, I'm guessing your relatives aren't the types to be persuaded by videos if they are already convinced of their position on the issue, but if you go here: http://www.seatsforkidscanada.com/multimedia.html and scroll down there are several videos from the UK that demonstrate in graphic detail why you should buckle up. I'm sure there are plenty of others out there as well.

I will not drive in a car with a loose person or animal because it isn't just about them - they might kill me. I knew a guy years ago that was badly injured in a collision because his friend behind him wasn't buckled and slammed into the drivers seat. I think the buckled driver was injured more than the guy that wasn't buckled and he has permanent scaring on his face.

(Actually, I was a bit of a wuss on this recently - I was in a cab with my boss and he wasn't buckled. I spent the whole 10 minute drive trying to decide how to tell him to put his seat belt on. I WILL say something next time though. I swear!)
 

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