Touch of bad luck on Saturday!!!!!!

[wilson1010]

Originally Posted by blazerbrad

....sorry to offend anyone, but anybody who does not wear their seatbelt is just stupid. We do crash demonstrations all of the time of belted vs. unbelted occupants in the car and you go from basically zero injuries for someone with a seatbelt on to serious injuries or death for somebody without a seatbelt on in the exact same situation. I'm not talking about 100 mph multiple roll-overs, I'm talking about even rather minor accidents.

If there is one thing of real value that has come from this discussion, it is Blazerbrad's point about seat belts. I'm an oldtimer who didn't want seat belts in my car in the first place. When I drag raced, I was offended by the NHRA requirement, and when a law was passed, I thought we had all gone nuts.

But folks, the sad fact is that I was wrong. Seat belts will save your life. The NTSB claims (and no doubt correctly) that 75% of the traffic fatalities where a seat belt was not being worn would not have been fatal had the deceased victim been wearing his seat belt. That's odds that you can't bet against.

When a vehicle rotates around its longitudinal axis, the doors come open and the passengers are hurled out by centrifugal force. This has been demonstrated over and over.

The hope for safer operation from lower centers of gravity, agility, etc. is not really supported in the literature. Maybe there is something to it, maybe not. But for most of us, because we care about driving, traction, road conditions, etc., we are not the cause of a serious accident. Someone else is and we are the victims. For us, bigger is better from a safety standpoint. And, the bigger the better. Get a big vehicle, strap everyone in and drive sober.