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Old 01-13-2005, 12:05 AM   #13
silver_pilate
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Join Date: Sep 1997
Location: Lubbock, TX...(TX panhandle)
Posts: 1,418
Default Re: Seatbelt Laws...

I've had the experience of being in an accident that should have killed with my seatbelt on or off. I drove a truck into a ditch at 80 mph. Upon the initial impact, if I hadn't been wearing my seatbelt, I would probably be fertilizing a field of corn right now after being thrown through the window. After my seatbelt prevented me from being ejected, the impact launched my truck into the air where it rolled over 180 degrees onto it's back, and landed upside down on the roof. The cab of the truck was folded back so that the highest point on my truck once they turned it back upright was the top of my bench seat. My seatbelt, which just saved my life, was now more likely to have killed me by holding me erect while the cab of my truck was folded back and flat with the bed. I should have been decapitated at the level of my shoulders. Somehow (I believe it was the grace of God, other's will believe it's luck), I survived with only a concusion to show for it.

As for what I think: I always wear my seatbelt. I'm more likely to die without it than with it. I don't know that it's the government's responsibility or right to obligate that I wear it, but it is the law, and I will do my best to abide by it. Even if it were overturned, I'd still wear my seatbelt.

In reguards to insurance rates: general trends in claims and payouts cause general fluctuations in the rates ALL consumers pay. If there are more injuries caused by people not wearing seatbelts, then there are more medical expenses, and thus more payouts by the insurance companies. Reguardless if it's your fault or the fault of the injured driver, it's not just your single accident that will cause rates to increase, it's the summation of accidents and claims accross the nation over years of time. Do you think your parents started paying the same amount for insurance 30 years ago that you do now? The increase is part inflation, part increased medical, repair, and labor costs, and part increased expense of overall claims. Not to mention payouts of life insurance claims for those killed in accidents that seatbelts could have saved.

Good thread, and good points all around.

--nathan
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