Even Governors Need to Wear Seat Belts
As you all likely know, last night New Jersey Governor Jon S. Corzine was critically injured as his SUV driven by state tropper was involved in an accident. From the NY Times:
Gov. Jon S. Corzine remained on a ventilator and was heavily sedated for pain today as he recovered in the hospital following a car accident Thursday in which it appears he was not wearing a seat belt, his spokesman and a doctor said.
New Jersey law requires the use of seat belts, but more importantly, so does common sense. Children often don’t know any better but adults should understand the risks. If you are traveling, unbelted, in a car (or big SUV) at 60mph and you are involved in an accident you will continue traveling in the original direction at 60mph until something stops you — the dash, the door, the windshield. And don’t count on those airbags to help you out, they are in fact a liability if you are not properly belted in.
Seat belts will not always prevent injury or death. At times, a seat belt will even cause some injuries. Overall, you and everyone in the vehicle is better off wearing a seatbelt. I know it is easy to overlook — I recently didn’t wear a seatbelt when I took a cab from the Civic Center MetroLink station to home when returning from an out of town trip. Perhaps you don’t want to ask a passenger in your car to wear their belt? We all need to remember that in a split second things can change dramatically giving you no time to react.
Please, buckle in those kids and yourself. Best wishes to Gov. Corzine on a quick recovery.
A couple of weeks ago my 40-year old cousin was killed in a single-vehicle crash. She was not wearing her seat belt. She apparently fell asleep at the wheel. She was the widowed mother of three. Now her children have neither parent. The oldest two are old enough to care for themselves but her 15 year-old daughter will have to grow up very fast.
http://wrightchildren.com/
Who knows if a seat belt would have saved her life but certainly her choice to go without it lowered her chances drastically.
For EVERYONE’s sake, wear your seatbelt. You may think of it as a personal rights issue. I disagree.
Should it be a primary offense? Should the police be able to stop you and give you a ticket for not wearing one? For any passengers? For any children? (Apparently, Gov. Corzine was not belted and he was riding with an officer that had every legal right, and likely duty, to ticket him under NJ law.)
I agree completely that seat belts save live and reduce injuries. I walked away from a rollover wreck when my car wss totalled by another driver running a red light. I’m just not sure if we can (or should) legislate “intelligence” and/or good intentions . . .
Friend who is an EMT-P says that even hitting the windshield at 25-40 miles per hour is enough to fracture your skull. He said, most likely, the windshield will not break entirely at that speed, but your skull will. He told me a 17 year old girl died in this manner because she wasn’t wearing a seatbelt.
That’s why St. Louis needs people like Barbara Fraser
If everyone learned to drive & spent a few years having to drive a nice old solid, no crumple-zone, metal-dashboard, non-seatbelt equipped, with solid metal steering culumn pointed straight at your heart, so little metal in front of you that the HEADLIGHT buckets protrude into the passenger compartment VW Microbus like me & my friends did, then I suspect there would be very little need for all the seatbelts, airbags, ablating bumpers and other “passive safety” equipment we see on cars today.
Nothing teaches you defensive driving and how to stay the hell off other peoples arses like bias-ply tyres and skinny little drum brakes.
Our societies need for all this “safety” equipment is in direct correlation to our insulation from personal harm resulting from no one ever learning how to freakin’ DRIVE a car (or motorcycle or scooter) these days. Like George Carlins rant on Volvo’s & Saabs “some people think that by buying a safe car it excuses them from the responsibility of learning how to DRIVE THE THING!”.
Just my general ranting for the day. Go about your business.
My girlfriend, a friend and I were involved in a 60mph collision with a drunk driver in the middle of 8 lanes of highway. While one of us to have a few stitches, we were all only bruised otherwise. We probably wouldn’t be here if we weren’t wearing seatbelts.
I rarely wore my seatbelt back in the day. Even after the seatbelt laws went into place.
Then one day I was flying down Lindbergh and passed a cop, taking rader. I figured he had me and rather than also get hit for a seatbelt fine, I (dangerously) put my seatbelt on and slowed down. Nothing. No lights, no cop…
A couple of miles later, someone pulled out in front of me and we crashed very nearly head-on. I was going about 45 MPH and still had that seatbelt on. I believe the belt broke my ribs and bruised me across the torso, but I did not go through the windshield of my small pickup truck (not far to go,) and I still have my original face.
Now everyone in my vehicle puts their seatbelt on. It’s such a habit with me that I find myself belting up to pull the car in the garage after I’ve unloaded groceries!
Corzine’s driver in crash was doing 91
Disclosure spurs state AG to question safety rules
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
BY JOSH MARGOLIN AND JOHN P. MARTIN
Star-Ledger Staff
http://www.nj.com/printer/printer.ssf?/base/news-11/1176876545227830.xml&coll=1
Obviously, the laws of NJ only apply to the “little people”.
Unfortunately, for the governor, the laws of physics apply to everyone . . .
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/19/nyregion/19corzine.html?ex=1334635200&en=cc7e599cec501bba&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
speeding & texting while driving your boss – not a great combination!:
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/local/20070423_Did_Corzines_driver_get_an_e-mail_.html