From: utzoo!utcsrgv!utcsstat!wagner Newsgroups: net.auto Title: Re: Seat belts, airbags, etc. Article-I.D.: utcsstat.304 Posted: Mon Aug 16 10:06:06 1982 Received: Mon Aug 16 13:30:57 1982 References: utzoo.2379 Dave Martindale says that people should not have the option of refusing to put on seat belts because of socialized medicine. I agree that people should be made to put on seat belts, but not for that reason. If people are willing to risk their own death because they dont feel like buckling up, the question of who pays the bill is pretty irrelevant. The best arguement I have seen for compulsary use of seatbelts are so called second-hand accidents. These are accidents caused by projectiles flying out of accident-involved cars. People make good projectiles when not strapped in. Around serious accidents there used to be secondary accidents that never touched the primary accident cars. The secondary accidents were caused by people trying to avoid the projectiles. It sounds silly at first, but imagine how you would feel if you saw a person coming through the air near you. Even if it werent headed towards you, you would probably make a bad instinctive decision to avoid it just in case, swerve, and cause a secondary accident. In arguements during the time that seat belts became compulsory, this was one of the bigger positions against the obvious free will arguements - you are implicitly endangering others. Then, of course, if you drive much with seat belts in bench seat cars, you know that your ability to control the car in an emergency situation is much improved. I even find it helps in bucket seats. The biggest arguement against seat belts (other than free will) is that they sometimes trap people. The old ones used to. I know. I have a friend who was trapped, unconscious, in a car after an accident. I couldnt free her, because the release was on the door side. Guess where we were hit. Every car I have been in recently has the releasetowards the centre of the car, where it is less likely to be fouled in an accident. And I dont know about the rest of you, but I always carry a pocket knife wherever I go. Technology is wonderful, but a knife and a small screwdriver go a long way towards coping with little failures like loose screws and mechanisms that jam or tangle. I dont know how long it would take for me to cut a seat belt - probably a while, since they are fairly thick and strong, but, provided the car wasnt actively on fire, I could probably do it within the time constraints. I guess a flame cigarette lighter would be faster, since that stuff does melt in direct flame. What a morbid turn this has taken. Sorry, I will stop now. Michael Wagner, UTCS