I am convinced seat belts saved a few lives. I won't move my car till everyone is belted.

rear tire blew, she was speeding, no seat belt, car rolled three times. On the first roll it threw her halfway out the driver's door window, so the car rolled ON her. Probably never knew what hit her.

I have seen many similar rollovers from the same stretches of desert highway. The people wearing seatbelts walked away, or were driven away by an ambulance and walked away later. The people without seatbelts did not.

A friend of mine lost her 18 year old son last summer after he ran a red light; died at the scene. Just tears your life apart.

...and she and I both will be going through the "healing" over this till the day we die...we will never be "healed"...but we are there for each other, which is a grand blessing indeed.

Since my favorite, dear aunt passed away, every year on her birthday I exchange emails with her daughter, my cousin. This year I sent her a great pic of her mom I took many years ago that really captures her spirit, and she went a little nuts with happiness... Sharing feelings and appreciation is a huge gift.

Something to do with high temperatures? Debris on the road?

...and the desert highways are littered with tire treads from one end to another. I'm very careful about my car and got into the habit of doing a quick visual inspection of the tires before I get in. While I lived in Pahrump I had three tires in need of repair / replacement in a six month period. At one point I had something in the tire I can't even explain, it was like a thick railroad spike without a sharp tip. How it punctured I will never know. But tires and the desert are not best friends.

I feel like I'm OUTSIDE the car if i dont have it on.

It's muscle memory for me at this point. I put it on to back the car out of the garage so I can get the mower out.

Tragic

I'm shocked that people don't wear them. I like to drive my German car a bit fast on the windy New England roads and the belts are key to staying put against the G forces. High quality tires help a lot too.

crossed the median. Though I guess it doesn't matter much now

I never, ever ride in a car without wearing a seatbelt...it's just done...period.

A kid popped off with "Only p*****s wear seat belts."

The teacher replied "You're calling Jackie Stewart and Nikki Lauda p*****s?"

At the time, they were famous F-1 drivers.

He kind of shut up after that.

For generations, teenagers have been the most dangerous drivers on the road, crashing almost four times as often as older drivers. A study released Tuesday quantifies, for the first time in a decade, how their risk of a fatal crash multiplies when they have other teenagers in the car.

It increases by almost half when a 16- or 17-year-old driver has one teenage passenger; it doubles with two teen passengers; and it quadruples with three or more.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/trafficandcommuting/passengers-increase-chance-of-teen-driver-fatalities-aaa-study-finds/2012/05/08/gIQAj7zQAU_story.html

the law restricts young drivers for the first few months to having no young passengers...

(just from growing up in the sixties)

until I rolled my car, wrapped it around a tree, and escaped through the back hatch. Now, one could argue that not wearing a belt saved my life (I was thrown to the passenger seat) but I immediately recognized it as a fluke. Since that day, I have *always* worn my seatbelt.

And if saving your life isn't enough to scare you, consider if you're in an accident and want to claim injury (not an option at my time of accident), the black box on your car will likely indicate if you had a seatbelt on or not at the time of the crash.

were passed when I was in college (mid 80s). I was babysitting in the summer and the parents asked me to use seatbelts before it was actually mandatory, and my own parents preferred we use them as well. I had just learned to drive at 17 so I've really never known driving without a seatbelt on. The one thing I can't remember is if we wore them when we were small - in those big old cars. I'm not sure they even had seat belts. However we were in a small town and my parents were luckily very careful drivers (and not very fast). I can't imagine why in this day and age it wouldn't be second nature though.

I remember that because my parents always added that option to their cars. When I started driving in the 70's, seatbelts were not mandatory, but the car manufacturers had started making seatbelts standard equipment

Five died including the 23 year old who was driving the wrong way. Four from one family died and some were thrown from the car. I don't start my car without putting on my seat belt and many times I thank Ralph Nader.

Great reminder - Happy New Year Nutmeg Yankee!

My kids or my mom, doesn't matter. I flipped a car many years ago and sat upside down waiting for assistance, unhurt (car was totalled). That seatbelt saved me from injury. Hubby also flipped a car and walked away thanks to a belt.

that clearly move the needle and save lives are wearing seatbelts and (as hard as it is), giving up smoking.

He said that these issues are important enough to be in the standard medical interview with patients.

Sometimes reminders save lives!

Great topic!

It may not be easy for everyone to quit, but it CAN be done regardless.

They are working hard to make it look glamorous again. I am shocked about the number of young people who smoke. Even though schools are less tolerant now days (no smoking squares), I think more teens smoke than when I was in high school in the early 1980s.

You had to have a permission slip, but still. My friends called it the "losers lounge'

Of course I drive one of these...

Somehow, she escaped serious injury, just a few stitches and a week off. But, now, she is a diligent seat belt user.

Herb Brooks died in a single car roll over. He fell asleep while driving without wearing his seatbelt. He likely woukd have survived had he been wearing his seatbelt. Also, there are now those wire-type fences on that stretch of highway to stop vehicles from crossing the median.

My cousin's 85 year old MIL died in a rollover because she eas not wearing her seatbelt. She was otherwise healthy. It's a tough thing to die at that age from an accident.

I had a 96 year old aunt who died in a rollover after her 73 year old dsughter swerved to miss hitting a deer. The daughter was wearing her seatbelt.

If you're going out please don't drink and drive.

If you're staying in, enjoy the comfort of home.

I won't drive until they do