Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire They report seat belt use....

I remember one wreck I worked, head-on fender bender, both cars doing about 20 mph. When we got there, one driver was walking around, talking to the police officer, he was unhurt. The other driver was slumped over the wheel, his face covered in blood. We transported him, he had a broken nose and a fractured cheekbone. Needed several surgeries. Guess which guy was wearing the seat belt.

Another wreck, 3 high school girls cruising down a dirt road at low speed one warm sunny afternoon after school. Little Jap pickup with a bench seat. The road had a deep ditch about 18 inches deep on the side, and a steep bank rising up from the ditch. The driver had swerved over into the ditch at about 20 mph. The girl next to the passenger window wasn't wearing the belt, she was thrown half way out the open window, and the truck rolled against the steep dirt bank, and the passenger girl got her head crushed between the top of the door frame and the red clay dirt bank. Dead right there. The truck didn't roll over, it was just tilted to the side there in the ditch. About $200 damage to the truck. If she had been wearing the belt, she would have been uninjured, like her 2 friends.

That one sticks with me because her dad was a DNR Ranger and I knew him, and while we were getting his daughter's body out of the truck, he showed up at the scene.

I feel naked without a seatbelt, no way would I drive without one.

When I was little, cars didn't have belts yet. Usually one of us kids was in the front seat between Mom and Dad. Whenever it got bumpy or Dad had to slow down fast, Mom would throw her arm across whoever was in the middle to keep us from Getting tossed. Of course in a wreck, it wouldn't have helped a bit but luckily we never had one. For years after cars had belts, Mom's arm would still automatically shoot across whoever else was in the front seat.

Not disagreeing, but seat belts are not all they are cracked up to be. Airbags do more good than seat belts.

A few months ago, 2 trucks head on collision, just down the road from where I live. Man wearing seat belt died, man not restrained minor injuries. It happens more than people think.

Studies have proven that drivers, restrained by a seat belt, take more chances, drive faster, and dont pay attention to their driving as much as non-restrained drivers. The feeling/thought that they are safer, because they are buckled up, makes them less attentive and take more chances.

Cut a lady out of a new F150 Saturday morning. Side swiped by a small SUV type vehicle, lady was not buckled up, but side airbags deployed and she had minor injuries. Older lady, couldn't get over truck console and couldn't get drivers door open. 2 vehicle were about 200 yds apart and I dont know anything about the other vehicle other than it hit a tree head on. Not sure about injuries.


That's because first responders, firemen, or the coroner are the ones that remove the bodies from the vehicles.