The Seat Belt Saved My Life The seat belt cracked my ribs. Imagine what the steering wheel could h

[AnkitGoswami 0]

It was a wet Saturday evening, my uncle, who had come to visit from Canada decided that we go out for dinner. Since my sister was too tired from work she decided to stay back so my mother, uncle and I took the car to go to a pizza outlet some 10 kms from my house.I was driving our Maruti Suzuki Zen with my uncle in the passenger seat and my mother at back. On our way back I took a wrong turn which put us on a road without a divider. I took a U-turn and started driving back on the same road. Now my side of the road was completely deserted while there was some moderate traffic on the other side. I was driving at some 50-60 km/h when suddenly a car coming from the opposite direction in the wrong way appeared in front of me and we collided head-on.My first reaction on seeing the other car bounce away from ours even as our car came to a sudden stop was disbelief. How could an accident like this happen to us. Then I felt the searing pain in my chest and heard the painful cries of my mother and uncle. I had a blurred vision of blood dripping from my nose (my glasses had fallen off) and smoke rising from the front of the car. Mom and uncle were bleeding excessively and as some people came to help, I realized that I was the least hurt among the three of us. Some kind hearted man took us to the nearest hospital in his van. Both my mother and uncle were covered in blood. On reaching the hospital I called my sister and told her about the accident.While they gave us first aid in the hospital, I realized that my mother was in fact in a worse condition than my uncle who had a lot of cuts on his face from the shattered glass. My mother was bleeding excessively from the head. I followed the nursing staff as they took both my uncle and my mother in the emergency room. My sister arrived at the hospital so I could get some treatment of my own while she stood by our mother. I?had?some?minor?injuries?including bruises all along the area where you wear the seat belt and I fear to think what would have happened had I not been wearing one.My?mother?and?uncle?were?discharged?after?the?doctors?stopped?their?bleeding?and?applied?some?stitches. Mother vomited a few times but was otherwise alright, no one had suffered any fractures.Then I learned that the driver of the other car was even more badly hurt than my mother. The other guy was alright though. Seeing their condition we thought it best not to press charges and they agreed to pay for our damages. We hired a crane to get our car back home.The next day I learned that one of my ribs had a small fracture. The combined speed of the two cars was in excess of 120 km/h and if the cars had hit?a?bit?along?the?sides?instead?of?completely?head?on?people?sitting?on?those?sides?would?have?been?crushed .?Seat?Belts?save?lives.?Period.

[TypoMage 0]

Wow that is some story. Seatbelts do save lives I do not understand why some people do not put them on it is two seconds to put them on and they do so much. But isn't true that the airbag kills more people then it saves?

[srujanlive 0]

Yeah seat belts do save lives. Airbags...hmmm yeah they kill more perhaps but improvements will surely be made in their design.

[FolkRockFan 0]

Wow. I'm glad that everyone is okay.There are lots of excuses for not wearing a seat belt. None of them, though, are convincing enough for me to go without my belt. I'd rather have a cracked rib, or some other such injury, from the belt than be ejected from the car.

[zak92 0]

Wow long story. Well you're lucky you had it on and I usually do not care a lot about putting it on but its more like a reflex for me as my hand has to go there and buckle my up. I have never been in a accident and I am very safe near automobiles. I would say you learnt your thing and probably will not go without seatbelt again. Good luck.

[DeM0nFiRe 0]

Wow, it's a good thing everyone is still alive.Airbags, by the way, will kill you almost 100% of the time if you don't wear your seat belt and have the head rest at the right position. If you actually use all the safety features your car can have, you can come out of a serious accident without even a scratch. But, if you use the safety features wrong, it can be more deadly than without the seatbelt or air bag. People have gotten heads ripped off by seatbelts because they were laying down with their head wrapped in the belt.

[michaelper22 0]

Wearing a seatbelt is supposed to make you part of the vehicle. If you are not wearing one, you become a projectile, and can injure both yourself and others if you fly out of your seat in an accident.I'm utturly bugged by the teens who put the upper portion of the seatbelt either behind their backs or under their arm, as opposed to the normal way of across the chest. It's probably more comfortable in the proper position anyway.

[t3jem 0]

I'm glad everyone is alright. Usually, a collision like that is fatal, you guys are all really lucky. And definitly seatbelts are lifesavers and i wear mine even if i'm driving a down the block. Also, a seatbelt combined with an airbag is what makes the airbag a safety mechanism rather than a death trap. If you have no seatbelt with an airbag, the airbag will snap your neck because you go down too fast.

[Mich 0]

So glad to hear you all survived. How lucky you all are. This kind of accident is usually fatal. I am glad you only suffered a broken rib, for I know a lady who was in a similar headon collision, survived the crash and later died from injuries she suffered from the seat belt.

 

On the other hand, I have witnessed an occasion when not using a seat belt saved my step-brother; as he got clear of the situation. A close friend died because she was wearing a seat belt and was trapped in her car under water. Another occasion a friend's mother, the only passenger in the car wearing a seat belt, was killed while the other 3 passengers survived.

 

Yes, the majority of the time properly used seat belts save lives as do the air bags. I use a seat belt all the time. Unfortunately there are occasions when nothing will save you, but the grace of God. But buckle up anyway.

[Rosaline 0]

I was in an accident once. I'd just gotten my license, and leaving the high school parking lot there was always a huge traffic jam of inexperienced drivers. Well theres a few hills, and when I came over one hill I had to slow down pretty quickly becuase there was someone making a left hand turn up ahead and there was four cars stopped behind him. Well, I'm stopped and I see a big red dodge stratus coming towards me, really fast. The driver never even tried to slow down. I was in a VW Golf at the time, and the immediate impact knocked me out but after she hit me my car hit the car infront of me, and so on down the line until four cars infront of me were involved, and then 3 cars behind me (including the red dodge) were involved, because they couldn't stop fast enough. Turns out there was a cop right there at the scene sitting behind the hill with a radar gun clocking people, and he had her red dodge at 52 mph when she hit me. The accident also happened right infront of a bank where there was a camera next to the drive-up windows. The camera caught the accident perfectly. She (driver of the dodge) hit me, and then hit the gas and hit me again, while my front bumper was against the car infront of me. Twisted the frame of my car, but that little VW saved me. So did the seatbelt. I had minor whiplash and a small concussion, I was only out cold for about 2 minutes, but if I didn't have my seatbelt on I would've certainly not been able to share my story. I'll take a few cracked ribs over a cracked skull.

[Tetraca 0]

I have a friend. Several years ago his aunt got into a car accident in which she was thrusted out of the windshield because she didn't have a seatbelt on. She survived with a few injuries which I can no longer recall. However, if she did have her seatbelt on, she would have died due to the way that the car had crashed. I don't remember what exactly happened, but I believe it was because the car flipped and the cab completely telescoped as it hit the ground upside-down after she was thrusted out of the front of the car. Of course, this is an exception to the general rule of wearing seatbelts just like if your gas take were to happen to explode when you crashed.

[tamilsun 0]

Wow that must have really hurt. Once I was on a bike and it really hurt me. I think these things can be avoided by wearing seat belts. Police officers say it over and over again, but I think people will relize is once they die.

[altenergy 0]

I hope you wont have any trauma or something. this is very dangerous...how long do you drive?

[masterbob 0]

God Bless your family man, and god thank you noone got hurts, Seat belts always come first when you get in a car. Sometime i dont put in on me, but on the highway yes i do lol.

[techclave 0]

yes... that was a wonderful testimony. hope many people change their driving style and start putting their seat belts after reading your testimony. Hope you are okay now! Here, in India the government has brought in many laws and rules to make people put on their seat belts when driving. But none of them are properly implemented and so almost none of the car drivers here wear a seat belt. Its a very pathetic situation here.