The statistics given out by the AAA, the highway department, or whoever has jurisdiction in this area are a pack of lies when it comes to seat belts and fatalities.
Most people, when in an accident, get questioned by the police. One of the questions they ask you is if you were wearing your seat belt.
EVERYONE says yes. I mean, if the accident was your fault, are you going to add another problem to your day by admitting another violation? “Yes sir, I ran the stop sign, caused the accident, but please give me an additional ticket, won’t you?”
And since you are alive to say “YES” you go down into the survivor column under “people who wore their seat belts.”
I had a potential mother-in-law (maybe not potential exactly, she mentioned something about “over her dead body” when I brought it up) tell me she didn’t wear seat belts because she figured it was safer to be “thrown clear” than to be trapped inside a burning car.
Now, I can’t argue that being thrown clear IS better than being trapped in a burning car, but I didn’t know those were the only two possibilities during a car accident.
(And I’ve been in a few accidents and I have never been thrown clear or trapped in a burning car. But I always said I was wearing my seat belt when they asked me.)
On the other hand, I don’t ever remember riding with her to see for myself if she did what she said.
Oh no…a thought just hit me…egad…maybe she was hoping that I would value her opinion and choose the “thrown clear” possibility.
And maybe it wasn’t her dead body she was thinking of…
