I think you missed a part, man:
I know seatbelts save lives, my point was that they do NOT protect you from injury. Only death. In instances where only injuries would have occured, seat belted passengers are usually injured worse, or at least half the time. Then again, that’s a statistic, which means it’s basically bullshit. I actually do wear one, by the way.
No, injuries would’ve been worse without the seat belt. And while not all statistics are bullshit, the one you just named is.
[OBVIOUS]“75% of all statistics are made up on the spot.”[/OBVIOUS] Oh, and insert commentary to the effect that he deserved it here.
Seatbelts save lives. A year ago today a friend of mine died and another was seriously injured because they didn’t wear seatbelts. The vehicle they were in rolled and they flew out. This happened right in front of me too. The ones that did wear their seatbelts were a little banged up (hey, it was a pretty bad accident, the vehicle even caught on fire), but they were a lot better than those who didn’t wear their seatbelts. If they hadn’t worn their seatbelts, they probably would have been in just as bad of shape as the one that died or the one hospitalized. Your chances of surviving an accident decrease dramatically if you leave the vehicle. Also, injuries is a broad term and you have to compare it wth the amount of deaths resulting from not wearing it and the severity. In the cases you mentioned, those would easily be deaths if the person wasn’t wearing their seatbelt. You are saying that at in high speed accidents someone can have their ribcage crushed by the seatbelt? All right, but if they hadn’t worn their seatbelt they would have flown out the window and they would of had a lot more wrong than just a broken ribcage. Seatbelts are designed to save lives and reduce injury. Also, some of those could be from only lap seatbelts or the person wearing the seatbelt improperly. What you are saying about injuries makes it sound like you are saying death is better. In the accident I talked about, one of my friends came out with just a couple of scratches and she wasn’t wearing her seatbelt either. None of my friends or any of our families know how she managed to come out so well. One other thing about what you were sayign about injuries, in those accidents, the person most likely would have been thrown from the vehicle, at least with a seatbelt the person stay in the vehicle and rescuers know where to go and where to look. If the peron is thrown from the vehicle, it can be harder to find the person or reach them (I’ve seen pictures and heard stories of people ending up on top of telephone poles). The cases you mentioned are extreme and would have been much worse without the seatbelt. Bottomline is that seatbelts save lives.
A-hem…
Since it appears not to be so fucking inconspicous:
Okay, can you people see it now?
Not against Seat-Belts.
I saw it before, but you also made a contradictory statement and said that they cause more injuries. What you said is like me saying “I love you, but I’m gonna kill you.’” If I love you so much, why am I going to kill you? Your saying that you aren’t against seatbelts isn’t convincing when you say something against them.
As for the article, arguing against seatbelt laws is stupid, especially the arguement this guy makes. Hi argument could also be taken for speeding, drinking and driving, running red lights, etc. Now you may be saying that those can affect other people, but there are plenty of times of times to do them with no one around. Those all infringe on your liberty to drive the way you want, but they put you in more daner. The government limits those liberties to keep you safe, just like seatbelts. Besides, what is so bad about seatbelts? They don’t really interfere with anything you’d be doing in a car and they only take a second to put on and take off. They don’t really slow you down or hinder you. Not only that, but seatbelts also keep you from sliding around and such when the vehicle is moving. Who else hated riding on the school bus and sliding around when you were on the seat alone and the bus made a turn or breaked or something like that? I know I thought it was annoying.
You may not be against seat belts, but you are still presenting misinformation and this is what we are refuting.
That is a much better way of putting what I was trying to say in my first paragraph.
We know you’re not against them, but your argument doesn’t make sense. How can you say that they cause more injury than they protect from? Well, unless you exclude death from the list of “injuries”, then yes, certainly they cause more injuries.
I mean, think about it, if you were going fast enough that a leather belt caused a broken rib cage or a ruptured spleen, then wouldn’t hitting the top of your head against hard glass cause you a lot more problems? How does that cause more injury than they protect from?
Actually, both of you mostly made arguments about them saving lives, which I agree with, but they do not protect you from injury. Which may or may not be true, depending on how you look at it, mostly. In smaller accidents, a seat belt will hurt more than help. This is because you will not be thrown from a car, and will not hit the dash hard enough to facture your skull, but can have a malaise of injuries from seat-belts. This is the point I was making. Not that they didn’t save lives, or that they were a great evil fucking plague upon the earth, but that they would not protect from injuries, except in serious cases.
Exactly, hell, at that speed you’d probably go right through the windshield and windshields are hard as hell to break.
I’d also like to add, that after a year ago with my friends. Seatbelts are very sensitive issue for me. Talk about learning the hard way.
Well, the seat belts around here all extend far enough so that you can hit your head on the cushioned seathead in front of you first before the seat belt is fully extended. The front has a slightly shorter length, I think, so that you don’t hit your head against the (also slightly cushioned) dashboard as hard. They don’t really do anything <i>until</i> a serious accident occurs. Maybe the kind you’re talking about aren’t extendable, I dunno.
Actaully, they will help just as much in a small accident since you won’t bump your head against the steering wheel or something. They’ll also reduce the chance of getting whiplash. Seatbelts help keep you from getting all bange dup and stuff in the vehicle. Cars have a tremendous amount of power.
As you know, cars can go much faster than people can run. People run say 10 or so mphs? Trying running into a wall. Kind of hurts doesn’t it? Alright, now add 15 mphs, for the typical slow speed of 25 in car. That is gonna hurt even more. If you had something to keep you from actually hitting the wall, you probably won’t hurt as much.
In small accidents, a seatbelt makes it feel like a bumper car in a way in that you have a jolt, but are still fine. That is much better than ramming into something. Hell, if you bang your head against the wall because you frustrated, that hurts, but it’ll hurt a lot more in a car.
EDIT: Also, if we jsut assume that what you are saying is true and accurate. It is still flawed since you never know when you’ll be in an accident or how serious it’ll be, so you should buckle up just in case.
No, most seat belts will stop you if you start moving at a certain speed or with certain force. I can assure you that a jerk of the seat belt sufficient to case it to lock up is not anywhere near the for of an accident of any size. I’ve been in a car where the seatbelts locked up at an accident that left little more than a dent in the rear driver side door, because it jerked us, and sudden movement will set them off. It doesn’t necessarily matter how much, or how great. Sometimes, they’ll lock up if you hit the breaks too hard. More recent seat-belts are attempting to fix this problem with more complex systems, for the exact reason I’ve mentioned.
Briefly, they can indeed extend, but if you ever notice, sometimes, if you jerk them, they will simply stop extending, in an effort to prevent your head from hitting the seat or dash.
EDIT: This was a response to Cless.
Arac, you are coming up with all the bullshit against seatbelts and you expect us to believe that you aren’t against seatbelts? You are spending more time arguing that seatbelts are bad than you did for “I’m not against seatbelts.” Just by the way you are talking and your focus, it is hard to believe that you aren’t against them.
I’m not, I just see little point in speaking about the points I agree with you on; if you share someone’s opinion, how many times do you usually tell them, ‘I agree.’
I don’t think it really needs to be said that many times. I have stated theat I agreed with you on most points, and don’t feel the need to say that every time the points I do not agree are brought up.
I’m not against them, and not even really behind my statements that much. I’m just playing devil’s advocate because this is a two-sided issue, and the other side really wasn’t being looked at.
Well, put simply, no, I’ve never experienced something like that, and I’ve never heard of anything about mass seatbelt design flaws in all major car companies.
His body, his right to choose. >.>
What happens with a seatbelt: it holds you down when you have a sudden jerk because if you’re in an accident, then your jerking forward is a result of your moving despite the fact that the car has stopped moving. If you brake hard, you’ll notice the same phenomenon happen. As you’ll learn in physics, a chance in velocity, results in a force. F = ma. Force = mass X acceleration. The stronger the acceleration (which can be negative), the greater the force.
Other things to take into consideration. P = F/A . Pressure is force over area. The smaller the area per unit force, the greater the pressure.
There are 2 reasons you want to wear the whole seatbelt across your body. It distributes the area over which the force of the impact will occur, lowering the total pressure felt by your body having to stay in place and it also keeps you in a place where your body won’t be smashing into other things and harming yoruself further. For example, if you had no upper body restraint, your head might smash on the steering wheel. This is a very small area, for a large change in acceleration on part of your head since it was moving really fast and it struck an immobile object. So in fact, an equivalent impact would have a much more dramatic effect without the seat belt and than with the seat belt. Further, the force of the impact is distributed over a better area to damage in the event there is damage if you are wearing a seat belt than if you are not. My cousin learned that first hand when he almost was killed and had brutal injuries.
If you’re not wearing a seat belt, your body will still keep moving in the car after it hits. OR your body can stop moving immediately if you have a seat belt. Take a guess as to which way is better for your body to stop moving. The seat belt is only holding you down when you stop hard or have an accident. It doesn’t act to cause you more damage by pushing back against you.
If you get smashed into the seat belt SO HARD that it injures you, then odds are, you would have had serious if not fatal injuries without it beacuse of the forces your body would’ve been subjected to.
He basiclly said your brains wont get blown out if your head hits the stearing wheel hard if your wearing a seat belt