Luckily I've never been in a car crash where I needed the seat belt to save me, but I do know people who have. However, seat belts don't always save, very occassionally they do the opposite.
Almost 40 years ago my father was in a crash where another car smashed into his at speed from a side road. The car (a Morris Minor Traveller) was totalled and he was thrown out of the driver's door into the ditch on the opposite side of the road. The nursing staff at the hospital said that if he'd been wearing a seat belt he would have been cut in two. Consequently ever after he refused to wear a seat belt and where possible deliberately owned and drove older cars that didn't have them.
Thankfully, however, those types of crashes are significantly rare and things like side protection and air bags are now included so I suspect that the same situation would be unlikely to be so serious now.
no subject
Almost 40 years ago my father was in a crash where another car smashed into his at speed from a side road. The car (a Morris Minor Traveller) was totalled and he was thrown out of the driver's door into the ditch on the opposite side of the road. The nursing staff at the hospital said that if he'd been wearing a seat belt he would have been cut in two. Consequently ever after he refused to wear a seat belt and where possible deliberately owned and drove older cars that didn't have them.
Thankfully, however, those types of crashes are significantly rare and things like side protection and air bags are now included so I suspect that the same situation would be unlikely to be so serious now.