Please wear your seat belts...

[hammer]

Saw an accident this morning on Rt. 302 near Bretton Woods...truck lost control on a slick patch, went down an embankment and rolled over at least twice before coming to a stop at the edge of the woods.

There were 4 young guys in the truck, and three of the 4 climbed out of the truck OK. The fourth person didn't have a seat belt on, and he was thrown from the truck while it was rolling over. He was lying at the edge of the woods (the snow may have broken his fall a bit), but he managed to get up and walk around for a bit before he was convinced to sit down.

I left once the police showed up (had kids in the car and there were plenty of people there to help so I didn't want to seem like a gaper), but I hope the injured guy ended up being OK...

 

[skijay]

The one positive thing I can say about my former VW Jetta is how well it performed in a hit and then rollover accident. All four occupants (myself as the driver) each wearing a seat belt including the two passengers in the rear wearing the shoulder belts walked away. Well actually we had to be pulled out through the front passenger side window after a guy smashed it. I highly doubt we would of escaped injury without the belts on.

 

[catskills]

Given 40,000+ automobile deaths versus 40 ski/snowboarder deaths each year, I would have to believe that wearing a seat belt is just a tad more important then wearing your helmet while skiing/riding.

 

[GadgetRick]

Seatbelts save lives. That's for sure.

Wearing a helmet while riding/skiing is just as important. Just because you don't die doesn't mean you aren't hurt (seriously).

Let's not start the helmet vs. non-helmet discussion again. People choose not to wear a helmet. That's their decision. Just don't try to convince someone not to wear one because someone feels it's just as safe with one on. It just plain isn't.

Anyway, I've been wearing a seatbelt since I started driving--before the seatbelt laws that's for sure. I'm a firm believer in them.

 

[hammer]

Anyway, I've been wearing a seatbelt since I started driving--before the seatbelt laws that's for sure. I'm a firm believer in them.

I've also been a firm believer in seat belts...

It was scary watching the accident (I was going down the highway in the other direction), and I was really relieved when the person thrown out of the vehicle started talking.

BTW, I didn't want to start a helmet debate...I just wanted to tell about a real incident where wearing (or not wearing) a seat belt made a difference.

This is especially important as we all go out on trips to our chosen snow sports down roads where conditions are less than ideal.

 

[shenty]

It's just common sense to wear a seat belt. Though many years ago I remember as a teenager that it wasn't "cool" to wear seat belts, though I'd like to think I mostly wore one.

This kid was very lucky. I believe that NH is the only state that doesn't have an adult seat belt law. If this happened in MA (or any of the 49 states), to add insult to injury, the kid would have gotten at least one ticket for not wearing a seat belt.

 

[Marc]

Given 40,000+ automobile deaths versus 40 ski/snowboarder deaths each year, I would have to believe that wearing a seat belt is just a tad more important then wearing your helmet while skiing/riding.

You've managed to introduce an unrelated issue into a seemingly benign PSA thread. Fantastic work.


Besides which your logic is totally wrong anyway. As someone pointed out you quote with no source only deaths and not total casualties.

As if the activities were equal in the first place. How many man hours were spent driving as opposed to skiing in the last year do you think?

Obviously, you don't think.