[yournamehere]

I always froget to use the lap belt.
Anyone been in an accident while using just the shoulder belt?
Did it work or was it worse than not using a belt at all?

 

[Intuit]

There was an evening 60-minutes type news report done many years ago that addressed this topic.

Basically, you, and more importantly your passengers, should always wear the lap belt.

What they found is that folks were sliding out from under the belt -or- the belt would dig up under their rib cages with such severity that it caused organ damage.

 

[yournamehere]

YIKES!
Gonna have to remember to use that damn lap belt, eh?

 

[koolwhipman]

I have my seat back all the way and with the automatic belts in my 95 tfour door The strap is out in front of me when I sit back and I really don't think that's a good thing. I've been a seat belf FREAK since I got in a bad wreck almost 9 years ago. Before that I had an escort with the power shoulder belt and I don't think I ever used the lap belt. It's way too easy to use it than to recover from the one time you should have.

 

[Intuit]

This only confirms half of what a television report did.
http://a.abcnews.com/Primetime/story?id=132170&page=1

I was involved in a wreck about five months ago (first and only in ~13yrs) but always wear the lap belt. Wasn't aware of it until I hit the shower the next morning but the seatbelt left a red mark across my chest. Even if I'm just driving around the corner I always fasten it because it just feels weird without it. Besides that, most accidents occur close to home. (which is a statistical duh)

Anyway I like reading wreck stories because there is always something to glean from them...

~10:30PM 4 lane straight 35mph suburban main road with 2 lanes either (East/West) direction. Good visibility, obviously night, cool wet streets, medium-light rain. Late November. Lanes are a little on the narrow side.

I'm in the right lane, with a modern light pickup truck to the left of and back me. Both vehicles single occupant. We're headed East bound on a downgrade. At the trough of this downgrade, is a Quick-Cold type drive through establishment. From the top of the downgrade we see someone looking to pull out onto the road and both slow down. The white Lumina pulls out onto the road, into the left lane and immediately stops to signal left turn. I begin to resume normal speed. About 4 car lengths away, the driver shifts to turn right, then signals, then tries to to turn right anyway.

I'm about four car lengths away, >35mph on wet slick streets with a real quick decision to make. Based upon the sharp angle of her initial turn, it was going to be in both lanes.

I looked at the oncoming lane but three factors made me rule that out. ONE, I hadn't time to do proper verification on the location of the light truck that I knew was over there somewhere. By the time I would've verified, it would've been too late to act. TWO, further up, there was a car in their own right lane fast approaching from the opposite lane. I would've had to have sped-up significantly to clear the on-coming lane in time. THREE, slick streets would've likely cause my rear-end to jack-knife during the sudden maneuvers.

All this rolled over me in a matter of a split second. So I continued on hoping the driver would abort and give me time to squeeze by. Driver did NOT abort and it was clear that I'd have no room to squeeze by so the only option at about two car lengths away was to SLAM on the brakes and reduce the speed of impact as much as possible.

Here are the results...
http://cid-0c43f28d3024191b.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/Public/RCP1.jpg
http://cid-0c43f28d3024191b.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/Public/RCP2.jpg
http://cid-0c43f28d3024191b.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/Public/RCP3.jpg
http://cid-0c43f28d3024191b.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/Public/RCP4.jpg
http://cid-0c43f28d3024191b.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/Public/RCP5.jpg
http://cid-0c43f28d3024191b.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/Public/RCP6.jpg

I got freak'n lucky on the accident, the appraisal, the repairs, etcetera.

The driver, a female in her mid-twenties, had two teenage or slightly older passengers with her. Some how she'd got into her head that she wanted to turn into the lot to the right to turn-around and go West instead of East on that road. I suspect that maybe my sedan, obstructed the pickup truck. (should've seen the cab at least but had window tint) When she turned into the left lane, then checked her rear view mirror, she probably assumed the pickup truck was me... that I had changed lanes, and began to turn around without doing a proper check on the other lane. It could've been the emotion from being involved in a wreck then being cited for an infraction while the rent and bills were due, but I don't think she was perfectly sober. Could've be mistaken but thought I got a wee bit of hint of an odor.

Anyway... that's my story to learn from. How about yours ???

 

[Intuit]

I have my seat back all the way and with the automatic belts in my 95 tfour door The strap is out in front of me when I sit back and I really don't think that's a good thing. I've been a seat belf FREAK since I got in a bad wreck almost 9 years ago. Before that I had an escort with the power shoulder belt and I don't think I ever used the lap belt. It's way too easy to use it than to recover from the one time you should have.

Yeah you NEVER really realize just how much force is involved in a wreck until you're in one. But the physics are covered in high-school science classes. >2 tons worth of kinetic energy has to go somewhere, and a lot of that force ends up being transferred to the occupants, as well as other loose objects in the vehicle. (very heavy laptop bag became a projectile during the accident - felt like someone drop-kicked the back of my seat) Wasn't a very high speed crash either. Had to be <30mph at impact.

 

[Intuit]

.... In the original police report and ever since, the driver, Chad Renegar maintains the crash was caused because he reached down to grab his ringing cell phone......

...and by the way, the problem ain't the inanimate object. It's the decision maker using the inanimate object. Banning the use of this object won't prevent them from using another inanimate object. FOOD, is by far the leading factor in most accidents, far and away above the use of cell phones. Shall we ban burgers along with cell phones ??? It's not whether you do it, but HOW, WHEN and sometimes WHERE.

 

[Macgyver4]

I always thought it was odd that they put an automatic seat belt system in the car but you still have to manually fasten the lap belt.. If somebody rides in my car there's a descent chance that the automatic belt will catch them by surprise and do something interesting, like hit them in the face and there's probably a 80% chance that I will have to tell them that there's a lap belt down there that they need to fasten themselves.