seat belts

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ja7618

Guest
Sometimes we have to protect others with rules and laws because some are to stupid to protect them selves, seat belts are a must
 
T

traveler

Guest
ja,

In that case you should also ban cigarettes, alchoholic drinks, etc. etc. etc. to protect stupid people from themselves.
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I still believe firmly in individual responsibility for ones actions.

ups gregg,

Can you site any stats on people not wearing seat belts losing control? I never hear of that before? I've been driving more than 43 years and the only time I slipped off a seat was in a bar one night and I didn't even try to drive home then.
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U

ups_gregg

Guest
<font color="0000ff">Any insurance agent will tell you that it is a statistical fact that people that buckle up not only are safer in an accident but are also less likely to cause and accident. That alone is enough for me to support seat belt laws. </font>
 
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traveler

Guest
"Any insurance agent" does not qualify, in my opinion, as statistical fact.

Just to reiterate, I DO believe it is a good idea to use seat belts and I use them all the time. I also require anyone in my vehicle to use them too! (since I am a benevolent dictator
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) BUT I still don't think it should be a LAW.
 
A

afups

Guest
When you drive down the road, why do you drive on the right side instead of the left and into oncoming traffic? Personally, I would prefer the left side but then it is so crowded over there and......
Perhaps I should just do it anyway...
 
M

mr_roboto

Guest
ALL LAWS GOOD!!!

no such thing as bad law!

thank you bIG BROTHER for taking care of me.

me too stupid to think for myself.

please pass more laws to protect me from my ignorance.

bIG BROTHER LOVES ME!!!



roboto
 
S

spidey

Guest
Just to clarify, I don't really care one way or another if it's a law (except for children under 18). I just think anyone who doesn't wear one is a flipping idiot.
 
O

over9five

Guest
Would you all agree that most people who are ejected from a vehicle (IE: not wearing a safety belt) are more likely to die?
NHTSA says that there were 10,302 ejected fatalities in 1999. This was out of 51,000 total ejections. Remember, the report does not tell us how :censored2: up the ejection survivors are.
 
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upsdude

Guest
0 95

I wear a seat belt anytime Im in a car. My position is that it should be a personal choice, not government mandated. I also believe helmets should be a personal choice for motorcycle riders.

(Message edited by upsdude on August 14, 2004)
 
R

rushfan

Guest
"Think of the delivery time you save not using your seat belt."

I heard that from a new driver here. Damn Fool. And yes, he was caught-suspended 3 days. He had been caught before.

Motto here: A** in Seat, belt on.

I believe helmets are a mattter of choice. I now wear one everytime since seeing in person a car v. motorcycle. I saw up close the riders head split open like a coconut...no he didn't survive.

(Message edited by rushfan on August 14, 2004)
 
J

jcroche

Guest
Posted by rushfan:

"..I believe helmets are a mattter of choice..."

So do I.



Left work around 02:30 and was heading home on a two-lane state highway. Running about 60 heading into a curve, and a car crossed the center line coming toward me. Either take him head-on or try to avoid him by taking it to the high-side of the road. Almost made it - but "almost" only counts in horseshoes, hand grenades, and global thermonuclear warfare.

(Message edited by jcroche on August 15, 2004)
 
P

proups

Guest
jcroche: thank goodness for helmets and your wise choice to wear one.

I agree with rushfan: <font color="ff0000">a** in seat, seatbelt fastened.</font>
 
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rd0127

Guest
Traveler wrote " I do believe seat belts should be manditory for persons below the legal driving age and their parents or the driver of the vehicle held responsible for huge fines if the kids are caught without them on, but that is because ones that young are not afforded the responsibility for their own actions and MUST BE CARED FOR BY OTHERS."

Just for the record, I don't believe that I'm going to change anyone's mind either, but here is my 2 cents.

Well, what if you don't die? Do you want someone feeding you through a tube in your stomach or wiping your butt and changing your diapers? Death is not always the way things go. And your insurance won't last forever in these situations. Who would be paying your medical bills then? The taxpayer!!! Your family would be taking care of your body (if your lucky), but the taxpayers would be paying the bill. Sorry, but that is the reality for a lot of people. Yes, these type of accidents do happen to people who are buckled up, but what if it happened to you and it could have been avoided if only you had snapped that seatbelt? Please buckle up!!!
 
A

afups

Guest
Spidey said "I just think anyone who doesn't wear one is a flipping idiot."

A very apt description of what you might become if an accident occurs and you're not belted in
 
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ups_gregg

Guest
<font color="0000ff">You are more likely to get killed flying on an airplane than driving or riding in an automobile. That is a pretty sad statistic if you really think about it. There are many reasons behind this though that explain why. People do stupid things to distract themselves when they drive. Looking for CDs...eating food...talking or arguing with passengers...talking on cell phones...and not wearing a seat belt. And people wonder why car insurance can be so expensive. A seat belt has stopped my urge to reach over and away from the wheel and grab a cd or phone. Some people might just take the belt off and then back on but I'm not one of them. A seat belt has saved my butt several times and I'm glad to say those accidents were the result of the other vehicles involved not paying attention to what they were doing. Those people recieved pretty bad head and face injuries too. I bet they strap up now and not even waste half a second trying to convince themselves that they shouldn't because it should not be a law.</font>
 
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sendagain6160

Guest
We had a driver a few years ago making deliveries on one of those rub board gravel roads and although he may have been going too fast,he lost control.The package car rolled over on him...NO! he was not wearing the seat belt......our only fatality in my 29 years.....NUFF SAID...
 
8

8up

Guest
whoa!
i've always heard that the most dangerous part of flying, was driving to and from the airport. i would think that the statistics would be more against you being on the road where you have more opportunity to be a target due to the increased exposure time to the total amount of harzards, and morons.
 
G

glenn

Guest
8up - whoa!
i've always heard that the most dangerous part of flying, was driving to and from the airport.


Exactly.

Only 25 commercial airliners crashed in fatal accidents in 2003, by far the lowest number in modern aviation history, according to the Aviation Safety Network, a Netherlands-based independent organization that tracks plane crashes.

The average, for the years 1973 thru 2002, has been 50 fatal accidents world-wide per year. The 70s average was 61, the 80s average 53 and the 90s average 48. Since 2000, the world average has been 33.

The United States suffered two fatal airline accidents in 2003: an Air Midwest flight on Jan. 8 that crashed in Charlotte, N.C., killing 21 people, and an Aug. 26 crash on Cape Cod that killed two crew members.

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A total of 677 passengers and crew died in fatal airline accidents in 2003, the 3rd lowest total since WW II. Fatalities per mile are the lowest ever, because far more people are flying far more miles. In comparison, highway fatalities in the U.S. average about 820 per week.

During calendar year 2002, a total of 42,815 deaths occurred on highways in the United States.
 
8

8up

Guest
whoa!
i'm so glad to hear that my hearing has held up after all these years around all that noise..
thanx,
the numbers are overwhelming.....
 
O

ok2bclever

Guest
If it was just a private decision that did not affect anyone else I would have to agree that it should be left up to the individual.

I would prefer the stupid people to eliminate themselves anyway as there is an overpopulation of them.

I view it as evolution in action.
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However, it does impact society. The average hospital cost alone is $5000 more for unbelted accidents than belted. Seatbelts reduce the risk of moderate to critical injury by an average of 50% in cars and 65% for the truck lovers in the group and fatalities by 45/60% respectively.

The costs to society go far beyond just the hospital medical bills though.

The taxpayer pays for a ton of all of this.

Twenty years ago a local supervisor used to tell of an incident where a driver not wearing his seatbelt in a parking lot leaned down to the right to try to recover his hat which had blown off and fell out.

He was fine beyond a little bruising.

Unfortunately the lady and her child who she was pushing in a shopping cart that was in the path of the free rolling, relatively slow moving package car were both killed.

I don't know if this was a factual story or one he made up, but then and now I can see something like that happening and that is the important point.

Laws don't prevent or make people wear seatbelts, but they do make them pay for their decisions.

Wish they would enforce the seatbelt laws more strenuously and significantly up the price of the fines to help pay for tax and insurance increases we incur from these individual's decision to not wear seatbelts.
 
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