----[Please read http://ercoupers.com/disclaimer.htm before following any advice in this forum.]----
g w wrote: > > People can prove these things, and I believe they have been proven. This is > hardly the same as helmets on motorcyclists. It is more like the people who > won't wear a seat belt in a car because they think they can't get it off if > they drive into a river, or the people who went nuts about their airbags > because they might hurt them. Dumb. It is all a gamble, but some people > seem intent on not taking the best odds because something in their brain is > stuck on just one little scenario. Yes, indeed. These are probability statements. The highway patrol has counted the bodies. You KNOW the insurance companies have counted the bodies. _They_ know which is the better bet. Have you watched to see what _their_ ads encourage you to do? In 100 scenarios, there are a few (WAG 5%) where having the seatbelt makes a situation worse. There are, perhaps, 80% where having the seatbelt shoulder harness leaves you uninjured or minimally injured where without the seatbelt you would have been injured or killed. Wearing the belts and avoiding the injury is a very good thing in those very rare situations where there is fire or water submergence -- you can unbuckle and get out. In perhaps 10-15% of the scenarios, it just doesn't make a difference. When I strap on my car or plane, I don't know what scenario will be coming at me. I go with the best percentages. I took advanced first aid with with the ski patrol. M.D.s, nurses and EMTs in the ski patrol were then required (and maybe still are) to take advanced first aid from a _ski_patrol_ instructor to be qualified. They expected the students to see compound fractures and ski-pole impalements of limbs and torsos within a couple of weeks of the class and took it VERY seriously. As a diversion from ski-slope accidents, the instructor discussed how to try to make an airway after a car accident victim's head and face have impacted the steering wheel and/or dash. He also gave us unauthorized advice how to make an airway in the throat if none could be made in the mouth area. (It was unauthorized because at our level, we weren't being trained enough to avoid cutting the adjacent veins or arteries.) But, as he pointed out, by this time they're dead anyway unless you do this, so what the heck? That discussion was vivid in my mind when I hit that guard rail at 55 mph in my Toyota. The shoulder harness stopped my face about four (4) inches short of the steering wheel. No guarantees, but I bet this is one of those (in the 80% group) where, if I had NOT had the seatbelt, I would be dead, now. As it was, I didn't even have a bruise. I got very interested in accidents after that and examined every vehicle similar to mine I saw, after its accident. One evening I watched for 20-30 minutes as the paramedics and firemen extricated a guy crammed under his steering wheel, into the pedal well, with multiple leg fractures, rib fractures, and more. The driver screamed and whimpered a lot while they were working to get him out. The passenger compartment was intact after the not-that-bad accident. I chose a seat by the window of the restaurant for breakfast to watch as they towed away a car which had hit the rear wheel set of a semi (from the semi's side) at maybe 25-45 mph impact speed. The front end of the sedan was banged in medium but the passenger compartment was fully intact. It put me off my feed when they brought the gurney, in no particular hurry, and put the front passenger onto it, covered him/her up fully with the sheet and drove away slowly with no flashing lights. (As I left, I saw that there was windshield/dash board damage from the head of the passenger.) Yeah, It's a probability thing. The one bicycle accident I've had involving head impact also had a very serious neck twist. If I'd had a bicycle helmet, maybe it would have broken my neck. Don't know. I was very lucky. But in bicycle and motorcycle accidents, the head injury probabilities are, they tell me, about 10 times better with the helmet than without. In my motorcycle days I wore the helmet. Will I wear a helmet the next time I have a bicycle. You get one guess. Am I going to go by the best bet? Count on it! When I play Russian Roulette, and there's a choice, I want the gun with the fewer bullets, thank you. __________________________________________________ To unsubscribe from this list please send mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ___________________________________________________________ T O P I C A The Email You Want. http://www.topica.com/t/16 Newsletters, Tips and Discussions on Your Favorite Topics
<<attachment: winmail.dat>>
