Originally posted by McFarland
I know what I saw. Me cousin was killed by his seatbelt holding him to the impact of that tree. I'll explain to you how it happened:
It was supposed to be a race, but it may have turned into a fight. Whether it did, we will never know. But we know he was murdered. He neared the finish line, and crossed it before the other guy. The other guy, he doesn't like this. So he pushes the back end of me cousin's car, twice. My cousin spun around on the road more than 180 degrees, his back wheels go into the ditch. The front wheels get traction again, spinning the car around. It goes off the other side of the road sideways, and jumps a ditch four feet deep. The wheels catch the rim of the ditch, though, and proceed to start his car into a flip, but first he hits a tree in his driver's side door, his seatbelt catches, holding him to the blow. He wipes out the tree, and proceeds to flip, end over end now, five times, ending up with his front facing the the road, his car turned 180 degrees since it hit the ditch, and on it's wheels. If me cousin had not been wearing a seatbelt, he would have survived. You can't say seatbelts are completely safe.
Ahhh, the proverbial "one in a million" accident. I am sorry to hear about your cousin, it's unfortunate that this kind of thing happens, but it does. I can counter with my next door neighbor, 17 at the time. He decided to make a very tragic decision and wound up getting in a head-on collision rather than riding the shoulder. He died instantly, seatbelt would have done nothing. His mother, riding in the back, without a seatbelt, was thrown foreward into the dash at 50 mph. Died later at the hospital when it was determined she was brain dead. The only survivor, of both cars, was his girlfriend in the passenger seat, the only one among the 2 cars and 5 passengers, and was the only one wearing a seatbelt.
Now we can go round and round about accidents but seatbelts save lives, there's no arguing that. There were always be a "one in a million" accident, of which my accident was one as it was a head on collision that I forced into a glancing side impact. As for "And if you can't tell what the car is doing by the sound of the engine, the feel of the wheel, and the way the road in front you looks, you aint much of a driver.", no argument here. But you did leave out the feel that seatbelts give you from all 4 wheels, something a steering wheel will not do. And if you don't believe that you ain't much of a driver.
