CENTER FOR DESEASE CONTROL AND MY TRUCK SEAT-BELT?

(Center for Disease Control and Prevention, USA TODAY)

(Larry Copeland, Oren Dorell, Alan Gomez)

(National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)

(Frazer Chronicle)

 

Okay the Memorial week-end is over, we have honored our service-men, proclaiming each and every one heroes, and mostly they are…..but it’s time to move on to other meaty subjects, things that have bugged me for years…..let me see now, Roundabouts, I’ve done them, Government Interference With Our Daily Lives, a huge subject matter that I’ve barely touched, Police Violence Towards Citizens, done it several times, but again…..the subject needs watching all of the time, or what about the Silly, Stupid Wars That The United States Keeps Waging, just blogged that…..I’ve got it, Safety Belts!

 

I’m old enough to remember when safety devices that strapped a driver into his seat was called a safety belt, and it got me to thinking, exactly where did the modern seat belt come from, and who the hell was responsible for the sometimes restraining device.

 

It just had to be a European, right…..actually no, the designer of the American safety belt was patented by Edward J. Claghorn of New York, New York in February of 1885, and was…..with hooks, designed to be applied to the person, the hooks and other attachments for securing the person to a fixed object.

 

Nils Bohlin, a Swede, in 1959 introduced the lap-and-shoulder device, (the three point belt) that was a feature on the Volvo. For the time, according to auto safety buffs, the three point belt was an auto industry revolutionary safety feature which has grown to its current mandatory feature on every vehicle manufactured since either the late 1970’s, or the early 80’s.

 

In 1921, Henry Ford’s Model T was equipped with a kind of child car seat, for an extra few dollars, however they were vastly different then today’s high tech devices. Ford’s Model T child safety seat was a series paper sacks with draw-strings attached to the back seat…..still, a step towards a safer ride…..at least for kids.

 

Finally in 1978, Tennessee became the first state in the union to required child safety seats; however there is no universal safety standard in the U.S. with the exception of types and manufacturer of the safety device. The ages and where kids can sit in a car can vary from state to state, and booster seats can be required in some states in kids up to and including 9 years of age.

 

Without a doubt seatbelts has been a God-send to drivers as well as passengers, and their safety and as a tool in fighting injuries sustained in an automobile accident. However, there’s that pesky however raising its ugly head again in one of my blogs…..however, I have a little more than a spot of trouble whenever government mandates safety devises to safeguard the citizenry…..I feel that our safety is…..well, OUR BUSINESS!

 

DO SAFETY BELTS MAKE BETTER DRIVERS

That’s a trick question, of course seat-belts don’t make for safer and better drivers, some people aren’t ever going to be safe drivers. The air-heads, those absent minded jerks that have what I call the swivel heads, these people are continually looking from side to side, with little regard to where they should be looking.

 

 

Then there’s the rocking-chair driver, the person who goes between 35-55 miles an hour, even though they’ve got cruise control right at their finger-tips. These people can almost be more of a hazard on the roads that a full blown drunk.

 

There’s also the texting person, the cell phone user, the person, usually women who approach driving like their riding a horse, you know, the gal with one foot by the gas pedal and the other foot gammed up against the driver’s door with her left knee almost hanging out her window, boy is that position a ready one for a sudden miss-step by another driver.

 

I used to drive a semi-truck so I know what I’m talking about, and men usually are no better than women when it comes to safe driving. A vast majority of the drivers on the road today wear their seat-belts, however…..wearing safety belts will not guard against cell phones, food, drink, smoking, radio noise, and conversation with others in a car.

 

What can make for a safer driver on the highways of America today, as a former professional driver, I really do not have a clue. Oh sure, unsafe driving practices can be ticketed, but usually aren’t, the vast majority of unsafe bone-heads tool on down the road in blissful thought, not recognizing what either they just missed, or have caused.

 

EVERYBODY CAN NOT DRIVE A CAR

I recall my mother some 20 years ago lamenting about not being able to drive anymore…..the women was in her late 70’s, and actually didn’t have to drive, she lived with my sister. But she fought like the old hardened bat that she was, and although she finally gave up her license, she did so secure in the knowledge that she had taken several DMV administrators down with her.

 

Big misconception, people do not have the right to drive, it’s a privilege, we all know people that have as much business behind the wheel of a car is the little kid next door. Their perception might be awful, distances between cars, oncoming traffic, or the worst, oblivious to road conditions and the weather that can be a determining factor in so many accidents.

 

There is some kind of perception that wearing a safety belt can make a bad driver a better driver, the seat belt suddenly transforms a poor driver into at least a mediocre driver, and a fair driver and good driver. This miss-conception seems to be held by people, some in law enforcement, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention as well as the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. 

 

This perception is far from the truth, and those agencies and people who prescribe to this notion are actually adding gasoline to the fire. Good drivers are made, not born, competent sound decision making drivers are aware people, they are aware to their surroundings, and are anticipating drivers, and I mean that anticipating drivers actually drive defensively, yet seem to drive aggressively.

 

Have I got you confused by what I just said…..defensive drivers, drive aggressively, what I mean is that good drivers drive almost every mile that they log with a defensive attitude, but based on their powers of observation follow the driving laws…..which if followed can be somewhat aggressive. Driving with the flow of traffic…..no matter the speed is the most logical thing to do. In Chicago or New York, if the posted speed limit is 50 MPH, and the average speed is 61 miles an hour, for safety sake, it makes little or no sense to observe the speed limit because you will become a danger to the majority of the traffic.

 

 

When you drive in traffic, bumper to bumper traffic, changing lanes, or tailgating makes little sense, and you are an accident waiting to happen. Seat belts do not make safe drivers; in fact it probably gives some people the false impression that they actually are what the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration might call you, a statistically sound driver, however beware, I call most of those statistically sound drivers white knuckle, they drive with tunnel-vision, looking straight ahead, and neither to the right or left, or I think even in their rear view mirror.

 

HERE’S THE LOW-DOWN GAG

Seat belt laws accomplish two very important things for the business community as well as law enforcement, why more people don’t understand these facts is way beyond me. Number one, when people wear seat belts, their injuries are usually less catastrophic…..and absolutely that is a good thing.

 

Air bags, and seat belts for automobiles, and helmets for snowmobilers and motorcycles make sense, the devises keep people safer, and the protection factor is undeniable. But let’s call a spade a spade here, a person in a vegetable state after an auto accident costs an insurance company millions of dollars during the victim’s life-time.

 

A broken are, leg, or wrist is a manageable injury, not only to a hospital, but to the insurance company as well. So for them, (hospitals and insurance companies), any protection devise is a panacea for their bottom line…..profit and loss.

 

And number two, law enforcement uses seat belt laws also as a sort of the same panacea that hospitals and insurance companies do, through a system of citation that are written for seat belt offenses, municipalities can rake in hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. It’s kind of like the month end, and ticket writing to fill quotas…..or don’t you believe that law enforcement depends on moving violation fine money to either pad or maintain the old operating budget?

 

As I’ve mentioned, (I use my seat belt whenever I drive), I initially didn’t care for a federal mandate, but I came around, relented, and I don’t really know what I’d do without seat belts. And ya, people that don’t wear their safety belts aren’t the cat’s behind, their just stupid asses.

 

HAVE A NICE DAY!