Re: Retractable Seat Belts- Where Can I Find Them?

Posted by Gary MacRunnel on April 15, 1998 at 00:21:10

In Reply to: Re: Retractable Seat Belts- Where Can I Find Them?
posted by carla on April 14, 1998 at 23:11:02

: just a thought-----using seat belts in a car thats not been
: fitted with the full safety cage per racing practise is a
: snare and a delusion----the advertising people have done a
: fabulous job for the last two decades of convincing the public
: that these are "the answer" to road safety----much better,
: in my opinion, is to develop the self-discipline required to
: leave lots of clearance between oneself and other vehicles,
: especially if one is alternately using cars of different
: handling and braking capabilities. my own aversion to the
: the seat belt fetish stems from being a passenger in an old
: car that was rolled over at high speed--had i been "belted
: in" i would have been beheaded horribly by the mangled sheet
: metal and flying glass---as it happened i got down out of the
: way and was unhurt----no little bit scared, tho.
Not looking to start and argument, and not trying to turn this in to a soap box forum, but I felt I had to respond to this one (nothing personal Carla).
Although there are rare cases such as yours where a seatbelt would do more harm than good, a majority of the accidents are front end or rear end type collisions.I have been fixing repairable cars for quite a few years, and since the manditory seat belt laws have been in effect, we sure have had to replace a lot less windshields.The one I saw that made me want to yell at anyone not wearing a seat belt was a Mazda RX7 with a hole throught the windshield on the drivers side, and a much smaller dent in on the passangers side.I also had an 17 year old cousin that didn't see a car coming when he pulled out, and was broad-sided.He was not wearing his seat belt and was thrown to the passangers side of the car and sustaned fatal head injuries. While I obviosly can't say if he had been belted in he would have survived, you could sit in the drivers seat of his car and not tell that it had been hit (from the center of the passangers side over was gone though), and I strongly believe he would have survived.I have yet to see a seatbelt bracket ripped from the floor in any car I have seen.
While I totally agree that prevention is the best way, you can't always stop that other car from puling out in front of you.
While todays shoulder belts are a much better system than lap belts, a lap belt can at least keep you in your proper place and in better control should you suddenly come across any large dips in the road the severly bounce the vehicle.
Sorry to get off the subject, but wanted to add my $.02

Follow Ups:
Re: Safety Scott Houtz April 15, 1998 at 10:43:13(1)
Re: Safety carla April 15, 1998 at 13:11:27(0)

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