[align=center]I know I have been bombing you with infor/stat's on the[/align][align=center]reasons to wear your seat belts, [:@] but if it encourages just[/align][align=center]one member to "Buckle Up", then my time investedhas been[/align][align=center]worth it [/align][align=center]Remember: Time = Life[/align][align=center][/align][align=center]Tick - Tick - Tick[/align][align=center][/align][align=center]Wow, I never thought it would happen to me...[/align][align=center]I'm young, I'm `free...nothing gona happen 2 me [/align][align=center]__________________________________________________ ______[/align][align=center]In less thenan hour someone dies in America simply because they didn't wear a safety belt. Safety belts are the most effective means of reducing fatalities and serious injuries, and sadly, many adults and children aren't using them.[/align][align=center][/align][align=center]To the 20% of You Who Don't Wear Safety Belts[/align][align=center]Robert Lange & MCF `Space
Executive Director
Structure and Safety of BackSeat"X"[/align][align=center][/align][align=center]Please wear Protection & don't over-populate the Planet [/align][align=center][/align][align=center]I know it is not just me. Many of my friends in safety, law enforcement, and public health cannot understand the view that a decision to not wear a safety belt is in some sense a personal "right."[/align][align=center][/align][align=center]Safety belts are the most effective technology known for protecting a person from serious injury in a car crash. They are proven to reduce the risk of serious injury or death by 45 percent in a car 45% Wiz, and as much as 60 percent in a pickup truck. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimated that 168,542 lives were saved by safety belts in the United States between 1960 and 2002. [/align][align=center][/align][align=center]That's equivalent to the population of Alabama. [/align][align=center]
The good news is that safety belt use is at historical highs in the United States. But there are still about two in every 10 people who don't wear them. The national safety belt use number is at 80 percent and should go higher because of law enforcement efforts like "Click It or Ticket." In Michigan, one of only a handful of states with belt use above 90 percent, usage jumped to 93.5 percent after the most recent enforcement program.

Another factor leading to higher use is the spread of primary safety belt laws in more states. That means you can be pulled over and ticketed only for failing to wear your safety belt. South Carolina was the latest state to go primary with safety belts, enforcing belt use as it does other traffic laws. If it is like other states, the impact of the law could help reduce highway deaths by 30 percent to 50 percent.

Seat belt use is a safety priority at GM. We introduced enhanced reminders for safety belts in our full-size pickup trucks in the 2005 model year. It's a feature that most people will likely never notice because they routinely buckle up.
[b]Unlike th

 

You would have to be a fool not to wear one. Space is right about the topic. I've seen way to many accidents where rollovers occur and when a body ejects from these crashes they were not wearing a seatbelt and in most cases died.

 

I'm a Safety Professional in industry andI can tell you seat belts not only save lives in autos, but industrial equipment too. Alot of people question wearing a seat belt while operating equipment such as a forklift because of the slow speed they travel, but in reality the seatbelt is to keep the person ON the equipment in the event of an accident. Most people are killed when the equipment begans to roll over and they jump off and are then crushed by the equipment.

WizzKid, I have to question your logic about your friend laying down in the seat during his accident. I doubt anyone who is in the midst of a fast-occuring accident has the time and frame of mind to analyse what is happening, decide he needs to lay down in the seat to avoid being hurt, then physically lay down, all before the accident ends. Most likely, the physical motion of the accident caused his bodyto lay down, which was pure luck. And luck is not something I care to gamble my life on.

I hear people tell of stories of someone they knew whoknew of someone (it's never first person stories!) who saw someone fall and while falling grabbedsomething and saved their life. I always tell them this is a physically impossible thing to do. I don't think anyone who is falling to their death is actively watching for something to come by so they can grab it. And with the force created by falling at a rate of 32 ft per second squared (32 ft/s2) they cannot be strong enough to hold onto something and stop their fall.

So, I'm not trying to be a smartass or anything, I just want to make the point that safety items such as seatbeltshave been proven time and again to save lives. Those seatbelt laws are written in the people's blood that did not wear their seatbelt.

 

[align=center]Thanks Randall for your post & thoughts. Do the employee's[/align][align=center]comply with the safety rules ? [/align]

[hr]

[align=center]2000 Pontiac Grand Am[/align][align=center][:-][/align][align=center][/align][align=center][/align][align=center][/align][align=center][/align][align=center][/align][align=center]

[/align][align=center]Four of my friends were going to a party, They pulled off the road because they saw someone swerving. The drunk driver crossed two lanes of traffic and slammed into their neon going 75mph.

One of my friends died, the other one cannot walk, another has a broken arm and blood clots in her chest and the other has serious head injuries. The drunk driver fled on foot and had no serious injuries, he is now being charged with murder.[/align]

 

[align=center][/align][align=center]The Benefits of Buckling Up: Seat Belts Save Lives




By Barbara Westlake-Kenny & `Space : )
Photography By Steve Wood
From UAB Magazine, Spring 1998 (Volume 18, Number 2)
[:-]Please Read & then Buckle Up `Ok, we need to keep our MCF Members [:-]

In February of 1997, 25-year-old Wendy Nolan Moss ran off a rural north Georgia road one mile from her home, hitting a tree and dying instantly of a massive head injury. For reasons no one understands, she was not wearing a seat belt.
Wendy was a seat-belt user, say friends who had ridden with her. “She wouldn’t even put her car in drive without buckling up first,� said one good friend at Wendy’s funeral last year. “And she would make sure we did, too. We just can’t understand why she didn’t do it that night.�
Each year, more than 60,000 Americans are killed in motor vehicle crashes. The carnage on our American roadways has far eclipsed the death toll of all our wars combined. Nearly every American family has been touched in some way. In fact, traffic accidents are the number one cause of death for Americans age 5 to 34—and public health officials insist that up to half of these lives could be saved if everyone wore seat belts.
More than 70 percent of the 1,020 people killed in crashes on Alabama roads in 1996 weren’t wearing seat belts, according to an Alabama Department of Public Health survey. In fact, Alabama has one of the lowest rates of seat-belt usage in the nation. Not surprisingly, our state ranks 12th in the nation for deaths on its roadways.

Why Seat Belts Work

According to the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA), lap-shoulder belt systems reduce the risk of fatality and serious injury by 50 percent when used by drivers and front-seat passengers. “Seat belts are your first line of defense against injuries or death,� declares Ricardo Martinez, NHTSA administrator. From 1975 through 1996, it is estimated that safety belts saved 90,425 lives, including 10,414 lives saved in 1996.
Kenneth Mann, Ph.D., of UAB’s Biomedical Engineering Department, says that the three-point safety-belt restraint, which includes a combination of lap belt and shoulder-to-hip belt, “protects the internal organs in a crash as it controls the forward motion of the body and the accompanying rotation of the pelvis.� The device, he says, also minimizes head contacts and excessive neck motion, preventing head and neck injuries.




[/align][align=center][/align][font=arial,helvetica][align=center]
When crashes occur, unrestrained drivers are thrown against their steering wheels or ejected from their cars, while unbelted passengers hit the dashboard or go through the windshield. People who are ejected in crashes are 25 times more likely to be killed than those who remain within the vehicle.

Paying the Price
[b]Vehicle crash costs also skyrocket when occupants aren’t wearing seat belts, because unbelted victims sustain more severe injuries. Of the people who survive car crashes, unbelted victims stay three-to-fi

 

I have always worn mine since my first car with an airbag. Once you see an airbag go off and realize you sit a matter of inches behind it, it makes good sense to wear the seatbelt. I saw a demo GM made several years ago with a test dummy with and without the seatbelt with an airbag in just a 30MPH front crash. Changed my mind about them. There are always going to be situations where a seatbelt can cause more harm than good, Fire or water submersion, but just like anything we take chances driving, riding with someone else or just trying to walk across the street. I figure when it's my turn to die nothing will stop it. But why tempt it? I normally don't worry about my driving but everyone else's driving is a different story.

 

Years ago a friend of mine was in one of those accidents that they said "he would have been killed if he had a seat belt on".He was driving a 1966 Impala and hit a pole.The main hit was around the driver's side headlights.The steering column pushed back through the driver's seatback.Somehow he wound up on the floor with his head below the glovebox and climbed out with a few scratches and bruises.That Impala was hit so hard the rear quarters buckled out,and the grill was against the firewall. (ps... it was a 2 door SS if anyone was wondering)

 

I wear mine when I remember to (or when I pull up next to a Babylon 5-0!) Where I come from, seatbelts were not required until right before I left to come to the USA. It's not a matter of not wanting to, I just forget because I'm not in the habit.

 

Space- You asked if employees comply with safety rules...

This is something that we fight constantly. Older employees resist because "we never had to before andI ain't never been hurt" while younger employees feel "It'll never happen to me, it happens to other people." In truth, an average of 17 people a day are killed on the job in the US. Almost 6000 per year, so it does happen. Number one cause: vehicle accidents. Number two: falls. Number three: homocide. Interestingly, homocide is number one among wonen on the job.

Risk taking is a product of human behavior. Basically, people take risks for several reasons:The risk does not involve anyone else ("I don't mind speeding but I'd never pass a stopped school bus"); The reward is worth the risk (buying $10 worth of lottery tickets on a $100 million pot); the risk is high but the chance of something happening is low (drag racing on a deserted street); or they are in the habit of taking a certain risk and the risk has lost it's fear factor (I've been doing it like this for 50 years and haven't been hurt yet").

Reading these posts, I think you can see some of this behavior. Some answers have been "I never wear mine", "I wear it when I remember to","I wear mine when I see the police", and "I always wear mine."I find them all interesting as it gives me an insight to each person's subconcious thinking. When I read "I never wear mine" what I hear is "Because I've never paid the price for not wearing it and the risk doesn't include anyone else". Probably a younger, single person.

"I wear mine when I see the police" is probably someone whois a little older, had a few tickets, but is single.

"I always wear mine"is probably married,has children and either wants to set a good example or the kids remind him to put it on. Or, has paid a price in the past for not wearing it, either by having a serious wreck or paid a hefty fine.

Anyway, just some observations and rambling. I find human behavior an interesting and very complicated subject.

 

All of our drivers better were their seat belts or they risk being fired. I know of one who was caught not wearing his (he said he was only going a short distance) and they fired him. He got his job back of course.

A guy who works for me was coming to work just before this past Christmas. He works for his uncle cleaning carpets besides working for UPS. He fell asleep behind the wheel on his way to work and since he didn't wear his seat belt, he was thrown from the car, which landed on top of him. His still not back to work today. They say it'll be some time before he can walk normal again.

I wear my seat belt.