[Julie]

I don't know if this is going to be in the right place or not.. but a mod can move it if needed.

Here goes:

August 26th, my friend Alex was in a bad car accident. He was not wearing his seatbelt. He had a modified CRX. The CRX flipped 3 times, threw him out of the car and eventually landed on him with the muffler burning the skin off the right side of his face down to the bone. Alex was in a coma for about 2 months. He has had numerous surgeries and been to 3 or 4 different hospitals during this period. He is now awake but has no use of his right side and can communicate only by pointing to things that he wants. Alex was able to come home today for Christmas only. He has to go back to the hospital in the morning and it could be March before he will be able to come home for good.

December 25th, My boyfriend's cousins, John and Bre, were in a bad car accident. They were both wearing their seatbelts. John flipped his modified RSX twice, and they walked away from the accident with a scratch on John's hand and a little cut on his ear. Bre was perfectly fine. The RSX is completely totaled.

If I looked at both cars and had to tell you which one was worse, the RSX was banged up twice as bad as the CRX but John and Bre, who were wearing seatbelts, walked away from their wreck, but Alex did not and it's possible that he will never walk again.

Until today, I have never been a big fan of seatbelts, but now I can see for myself what they can really do to save your life. I'm not going to go preaching that you should wear your seatbelts because it's your own decision... but it's just something to think about.

Julie

 

[NorCalCoug]

Seatbelts save lives. If you don't recognize that fact, then you must be made of stupid. Yes, there are times that someone who died in an accident could've lived if they hadn't worn a seatbelt, but those instances are far less than those people who would've survived had they worn their seatbelt. Buckle up people! Racecar drivers don't wear 5-point harnesses for fun; treat your seatbelt the same.

 

[EDawg99]

Yup, seatbelts are why I'm still here.


-Eric

 

[JScullin]

Not to downplay your story, I feel sorry for all of them, but the RSX most likely saved them due to the fact it's years ahead in safety than the CRX. Crumple zones, solid steel cage around the cabin area...stuff like that.


What did both parties do to flip their cars so violently? It can be pretty tough rolling a sports car, which is fairly low to the ground, unless your going off road in it. I'm amazed to hear stories of Cougars getting rolled.

 

[Julie]

Yeah, I was thinking about that too... I mean I know that the RSX is built better than the CRX, obviously... but we all know that if Alex had his seatbelt on, he probably wouldn't be in the condition he's in today...

We honestly don't know how Alex managed to flip the CRX and he can't tell us because he doesn't remember the wreck. We're assuming that he was speeding and maybe something like a cat or dog or deer ran out in front of him so he swerved and just a combination of things caused him to flip.. but we still don't know for sure.

John was going too fast around a curve and he would have had it but his front right tire slid off the road, hit some gravel, hit a driveway that was about 6 inches higher than the ground, somehow slid to the other side of the road, hit a ditch, flipped the back over the front and then rolled onto the passenger side and landed in the middle of the field facing the road right side up. I was trying to figure out how the back end went over the front but I wasn't there to see it so I guess i'm never going to find out.

Julie

Edit: I know it's hard to flip a Cougar... but for some reason, I think if my friends had the chance, someone would figure out how to do it.

 

[BigDaddyTiberius]

I ALWAYS wear my seatbelt. In fact my friends sometimes make fun of me because of it. Once I went out my friend's car and waited 10 minutes seatbelted in listening to the radio while he was on the phone talking to his wife. I won't move my car until everyone in it has their seatbelts on.

My dad used to be a paramedic and he always said "I never unbuckled a dead person." He had picked up people that died being thrown out of their cars a couple times.