From: utzoo!utcsrgv!utcsstat!wagner
Newsgroups: net.auto
Title: Re: Air Bags and other devices - (nf)
Article-I.D.: utcsstat.317
Posted: Sat Aug 21 10:33:18 1982
Received: Mon Aug 23 13:36:04 1982
References: csin.181

Suggestions have been made on this newsgroup that insurance
not be payable to people not using seatbelts.  I think that,
to be fair, it would be necessary to show that lack of seat
belt was relevant to the extent of the damage.
(it wasnt my idea, I cant take credit, some else said it first
here, I have forgotten who).
However, this might be hard.  I have received at least one 
comment that people dont generally hit other cars when they
become projectiles.  The point has perhaps been missed.  If
you see someone flying through the air, even not very near you,|you are likely to freak out and do something stupid.  Just think
how many accidents are caused by rubber-neckers after all the
action has completed in the main accident.  Imagine what people
who cant keep their eyes on the road would do with projectile
people.  And utzoo!laura is right - (from experience, 
unfortunately) if you are involved in accidents where people
die, you have nightmares and other problems for months after.
I was lucky - there was no way I could be considered in the
wrong.  What about cases when you werent sure?  Like you hit
the brakes instinctively and froze when you saw the person
flying through the air, and the resulting secondary accident
killed someone else.  Would you be able to cope with guilt?

Without turning this into a demonstration of "I survived a 
scarier accident than you did" childishness, I wonder how many
anti-seatbelt types (for their own choice, not freedom-of-
choice-for-others advocates) here on the net have had 
experiences with major accidents (serious injury - requiring
hospitalization).  Seems I became a bigger advocate of 
seatbelts after seeing what they could and couldnt do.
What do others think?

Michael Wagner, UTCS