Wear Your Seatbelt.

[Thrillhouse]

Last Thursday night, a good friend of mine was in a very serious car accident. His SUV completely flipped, throwing him through the windshield and onto the pavement. He was medivac'ed to the nearest hospital and rushed into emergency surgery. They removed part of his skull to keep his brain swelling from putting too much pressure on the brain, itself. He also had a punctured lung which was leaking blood into his lung taking precious oxygen away from his brain. He has survived the first 72 hours of this ordeal but the doctors are not giving any odds for survival. If I had to guess, I would say it is 50-50 and if he does survive, I would be shocked if he didn't have any kind of permanent brain damage or paralyzation. He was in a coma when they arrived on the scene and the doctors have kept him in one with heavy sedation.

The sad thing about this is he was not wearing his seat belt. His accident likely would not have been as serious if he was. In the many times I rode with him in his car, he never wore it and I often told him how stupid he was for not doing so. Now, it has finally caught up with him. So, if any of you out there are like him and think wearing a seat belt is just too much of a hassle, please realize you could end up like him, or worse: dead. It's absolutely pure stupidity not to. It might sound trite to say it but there are still many people I know who don't wear theirs. So for your own good, please wear your seat belt.

Thanks.

[oz]

Hope your friend's health will improve quickly!

I've been in the habit of buckling up as soon as I get in the vehicle for many years, now.

It's probably a very good habit to be into.

[elija]

I hope your friend recovers. It is always a shock when something like that
happens.

My parents always "buckled me up" in the car from a very young age
and as a result I actually feel naked in a car without a seat belt on.

Buckle up and if you have kids, buckle them up!

[bigtomrodney]

I hope your friend makes a good recovery Thrillhouse. It's unfortunate that many people in this world can't learn any way but the hard way. My own life was saved a few years back by my seatbelt with my sister and stepdad taking serious injuries and almost dying because they did not have belts.

Unfortunately this was an older car that didn't have rear seatbelts, but you can be sure that every car since has been kitted out as much as possible for safety. I hope the message of your friend's misfortune will at least help prevent the same mistake being made.

[budman7]

In the state I live in, Michigan of the U.S., it is the law to wear a seatbelt.
If the police see that you are not wearing it they can pull you over.
1st offense is a $50 fine.
Further offenses go up.
I personally think wearing a seatbelt is a good idea, for all the reasons mentioned above.

I hope your friend gets through this.

[fingal]

Sorry to hear about this Thrillhouse. I would like to add my good wishes for your friend to this thread. Let's hope he pulls through.

Here in the UK it's compulsory to wear seatbelts, even for back seat passengers.

[Thrillhouse]

Thanks for all the good wishes.

budman7, I think more and more states are starting to pass laws that allow the police to pull you over if you're not wearing your seat belt. Still, in 32 states, you can only be ticketed for not wearing your seat belt if you've been pulled over for another violation. I was also surprised to hear that New Hampshire has no seat belt laws whatsoever.

Safety belt use laws

My dad refuses to wear a seat belt to this day and has probably never worn one in his life though I don't worry about him as much because he lives in a very small town and any driving he does is usually under 35 mph.

[techieMoe]

I was not surprised to find that my state, Texas, has the highest maximum first offense of $200 per seatbelt violation. There are billboards and various other advertisements throughout the year in my city. We're very tough on seatbelts, and I'm damn proud of it.

[Thrillhouse]

I noticed that too. It's more than double the next closest state. I also noticed that some states that only ticket for seat belt violations as secondary offenses reduce the fine of the original offense if the offender is wearing a seat belt.

[bigtomrodney]

Over here we operate a penalty points system similar to the one in the UK. If you are caught without your seatbelt on you get two penalty points and a €60 fine. If you pay late it's €90, and if you choose to appeal it but are unsuccessful the points are doubled to 4.

The trick is that the seatbelt requirement is for anyone in the car and if you get 12 points for any reason at all you get a driving ban of 1 year and a fine.