Seatbelts

*Seatbelts*
By: Texan
16 April 2005

It is always important to be seat-belted when you are in a car with the engine running. As a paramedic I have seen many wrecks where the lack of a seatbelt turned a minor wreck into a major wreck.

If a driver is not seat-belted in and a minor car wreck happens, it is common for the driver to be thrown into the front or back passenger seat when the car is hit. Once the driver is no longer in the front seat holding on to the steering wheel, it becomes impossible to steer the car to a safe stop. When it is impossible to steer, the car may veer into a highway, bridge support or a river thereby causing much more damage that otherwise would have occurred. Wearing a seat belt keeps you in the drivers seat so you can control the car.

If you ask any paramedic, fire fighter or police officer, they will tell you that a seat belt turns a 60-mile per hour wreck into a wreck with the injuries of a 30-mile per hour wreck.

If you are traveling 60 miles per hour and are seat-belted in and get into a wreck, the injuries you receive will appear to be from a much slower wreck.
The hip and shoulder belts are so important that words cannot explain it. It is a decision that may mean the difference between a sore neck and a broken neck.

The same 60 to 30 mile per hour rule applies to occupants of cars that are not drivers. Seatbelts are incredible at protecting the occupants of cars.

Seatbelts transmit the force of the wreck to the strong points of your body so your body’s weak points do not have to absorb the force of the wreck. They keep you inside the car and not flying out the window. They prevent one passenger from flying into a second passenger and killing them, and they keep the driver near the controls of the car so the car can be controlled after a wreck has happened.

If your car is over 8 or 10 years old, the seatbelt may not be strong enough to save a person. All ropes and belts lose strength through everyday use and sunlight (ultraviolet radiation). Every day your car ages the seatbelt loses some of its strength. You may want to consider having your seatbelt replaced at least every ten years.

Note: A very sad wreck I responded to as a paramedic was when the body of the un-seatbelted passenger killed the seat-belted driver of a car with her own body. The car was hit with such force on the driver’s door that the passenger was thrown into the body of the driver, and the shoulder of the passenger broke most every rib in the driver’s chest. The only injury the driver had was 9 broken ribs on her right side that were caused by the shoulder of the passenger. These were the injuries that killed her. Refusing to wear a seatbelt endangers more than your own life.

It does not matter if the car is moving or not or if you are driving, if you are in a car, the seatbelt should be worn.

A person that is thrown out of a car during a wreck is always more likely to be killed or injured than a passenger that was seat-belted in the car. It does not matter if you saw one or two articles that explained how flying out of the car window saved the persons live. For every article that says flying out a window is safe there are hundreds of dead bodies that show otherwise.
It is extremely common for occupants of cars to get rolled over by their own car once they have been thrown out of a car.

Air bags are much more likely to decrease injuries in a wreck if the occupant is also properly seat-belted. There is some research that shows air bags are more dangerous if the seatbelt is not worn. Air bags were designed with the idea that the seatbelt would always be worn in the car.

Note: Do not let any person refuse to wear a seatbelt in your car or a car you are riding in. If it is your car do not start driving until you are sure everyone is seat belted. Do not rely on another person to drive you unless you first ask them their seat belt wearing habits.

Note: It may seem too time consuming now to put on the seatbelt before you put the car in drive, but after a wreck, and after getting all your teeth knocked out by the steering wheel, those few seconds lost will not seem too important anymore.

A note on car wrecks: The automobile, seatbelts and airbags are designed with a straight front-end or rear-end collision in mind. This means that the best protection a car gives is when this type of collision happens. This means that if you know a wreck will happen and you cannot prevent the wreck, it might be best to steer straight into the other car or obstacle. If your car is hit from the side or at an angle, there is a greater chance of injury than a head-on or rear-end collision.

A note on priority: I have seen news reports and responded to emergency scenes myself of drivers that stop in the middle of a busy highway to help an injured animal and end up dying themselves. These good Samaritans probably felt good trying to help the animal, but the family of these kind people probably had a different idea when they learned of their loved ones death to safe an injured animal. If you want to help another person or animal, make sure you are not in danger. A rule of thumb to use when stopping on a road or highway to help someone is to ask yourself if you would be acting in this manor if there was no emergency or if you were just stopping to pick up a $20 bill. Do not let your emotions of the moment cloud your common sense, anything that is not traveling at highway speed on a highway will get hit.
Texan

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