What else can we do...

[Feralpeg]

to make teens (and everyone else) understand the need to wear a seat-belt?

This just makes me so sad. They were just reporting on local news about the death of Meg Crofton's (CEO of WDW) 19 year old niece. She was killed in an accident on Friday. A man driving a car had a seizure and hit the car the young girl was riding in. She was the only fatality. She was not wearing a seat belt. Would it have saved her life? I don't know, but it might have.

I'm just so tired of hearing of people dying because they are thrown from vehicles. It just all seems so unnecessary. I know there will be some with stories of how wearing a seat-belt resulted in some-one's death. That is not the norm.

Sorry, I'm just in a down mood and this just added to it.

 

[mommasita]

That is so tragic. Prayers for her family and friends in her young circle of life

I so agree about the seat belt wearing. Even if you are going around the corner, put it on.

 

[I*heart*MickeyMouse]

My car doesn't move until everyone' strapped into their belts/car seats... First off because it's the safe thing to do; secondly it's ANNOYING if they don't - my front seats have sensors and the car beeps and beeps and beeps until the driver/passenger buckles up. It goes through the radio and can't be turned off.

Very sad, my thoughts go out to the family.

 

[tvguy]

As a 53 year old I do not understand:
1) Why anyone gets in a car and doesn't put a seat belt on.
2) Why anyone under the age of about 70 ever started smoking.

 

[cm8]

to make teens (and everyone else) understand the need to wear a seat-belt?

This just makes me so sad. They were just reporting on local news about the death of Meg Crofton's (CEO of WDW) 19 year old niece. She was killed in an accident on Friday. A man driving a car had a seizure and hit the car the young girl was riding in. She was the only fatality. She was not wearing a seat belt. Would it have saved her life? I don't know, but it might have.

I'm just so tired of hearing of people dying because they are thrown from vehicles. It just all seems so unnecessary. I know there will be some with stories of how wearing a seat-belt resulted in some-one's death. That is not the norm.

Sorry, I'm just in a down mood and this just added to it.

So many have died here from the same thing. I had one best friend lived to tell her story and praise be to God, she never goes anywhere with out her seat belt now. I remember that day like it was yesterday. We prayed and prayed for GOD to spare her life while she was lying on that pavement bleeding out. She was given a second chance and not too many are. What I can not stand more is seeing younger children or babies not fasten down or in their car seats. If you want to risk your life go for it, but not an innocent child that has no idea of what's in store for him or her

 

[tonilea]

We had a rollover accident here recently. Two fathers - dead, four children ejected from the vehicle too. One died, one is still hospitalized and the other two are going to be okay. The only passenger uninjured was an infant who was actually buckled in - no one else was wearing a seat belt. You have to wonder what is going on in people's heads.

My life was certainly saved by wearing my seat belt. I didn't normally wear it (it wasn't the law back then), but I actually pulled over and buckled up. I fell asleep and rolled my Jeep Wrangler multiple times. The top was torn off and every single body panel was damaged. Because I was wearing my seat belt, I walked away with a sprained back and a mild concussion.

 

[MrsJackSparrow4Life]

My life was certainly saved by wearing my seat belt. I didn't normally wear it (it wasn't the law back then), but I actually pulled over and buckled up. I fell asleep and rolled my Jeep Wrangler multiple times. The top was torn off and every single body panel was damaged. Because I was wearing my seat belt, I walked away with a sprained back and a mild concussion.

Same thing happened to my mom.

She and my dad never wore their seat belt (even though they insisted my brother and I did) but one day when she had just dropped a friend and I off at the movie theater she reached down and buckled up before taking off. Less than 5 minutes later she was hit by a drunk driver; her van went airborne and landed on the opposite side of intersection, on it's top, facing the opposite direction.

She doesn't know why she put her seat belt on but she thinks her sister who was killed by a drunk driver 15 years before this may have had something to do with it .

Needless to say both her and my dad now wear their seat belts at all times while in the car.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

It has to start at home. Parents need to be the targets.

I hate to say it but the movie "Zombieland" made a good point that got across to teens the need for seatbelts. It is rule #4.

 

[polkadotsuitcase]

I've never understood why people don't wear it -- because they think it's uncomfortable or something? Or maybe they just never got in the habit? I agree with PP about parents starting it -- if you make it a habit now, hopefully the kiddos will pick it up and make it instinctive, too.

A friend in college never wore her seat belt. She said her grandparents had been in the car and had just filled a tank of propane, which was in the trunk. As they were driving, the air conditioner mis-fired or something and caused a spark, igniting the propane. I can't remember if they couldn't get out b/c of their seat belts or were delayed getting out b/c of them, but that was her reasoning for not wearing one!

I said I felt the odds of that happening (how often does the average person really have propane in the back, that happens to be leaking, who happens to have a faulty a/c in their car?) were mighty slim compared to an auto accident, but she was stubborn about it.

Very sad about the young girl.

 

[Acklander]

Because young people think bad things happen to other people. As you get older, and experience losses it slowly starts to dawn on you that maybe bad things can happen to you as well. All you can do is educate people about it, and hope for the best.

 

[indimom]

Because young people think bad things happen to other people. As you get older, and experience losses it slowly starts to dawn on you that maybe bad things can happen to you as well. All you can do is educate people about it, and hope for the best.

AND get one of those annoying newer cars that beeps at you until you put it on. Drives me nuts, but it works. (I have been known to forget my seatbelt from time to time, it didn't become a habit for my hubby and I until my daughter was a kindergartener and brought home a "buckle up" rear view mirror craft. We followed the law for the kids, just not ourselves. Since then, we've tried hard, but I do forget sometimes. That obnoxious beeping is the best reminder ever. All I want to do is Shut It Up!!!

 

[Acklander]

AND get one of those annoying newer cars that beeps at you until you put it on. Drives me nuts, but it works. (I have been known to forget my seatbelt from time to time, it didn't become a habit for my hubby and I until my daughter was a kindergartener and brought home a "buckle up" rear view mirror craft. We followed the law for the kids, just not ourselves. Since then, we've tried hard, but I do forget sometimes. That obnoxious beeping is the best reminder ever. All I want to do is Shut It Up!!!

I've seen people clip the seat belt closed behind them to stop the beeping. So they're still not wearing the seat belt.

 

[DawnM]

That is terrible. So sorry to hear that.

My kids are well aware that they need to buckle up, but I just hope they feel that way when they get to be away from us. While they live with us we can control it, but at 19 she may have already lived out of the home.

Dawn

 

[dejr_8]

WE don't need to do anything about it. It is a PERSONAL decision.

There are many risky activities that we all perform day-in, day-out that WE don't need to regulate. Seat belt use if just one of them.

 

[indimom]

I've seen people clip the seat belt closed behind them to stop the beeping. So they're still not wearing the seat belt.

Well, guess it only works when you are not ACTIVELY AVOIDING the seatbelt, just forgetting it... For those who refuse to wear one, all you can do is pray they never get in an accident.

 

[december]

WE don't need to do anything about it. It is a PERSONAL decision.

There are many risky activities that we all perform day-in, day-out that WE don't need to regulate. Seat belt use if just one of them.

True, for adults, but not for the innocent kids in the car with them. We don't go anywhere without seatbelts, even across the road to my husband's office. My kids have been brainwashed! My MIL called me a drama queen (behind my back) because my kids refused to ride without seatbelts. She had too many grandkids, and didn't want to take 2 cars (her and her sister) like she had promised. I don't care-made me realize my kids listen!

 

[Colleen27]

I really don't think there's much that can be done. People make bad decisions for themselves all the time, and there is no way to prevent that consistantly. I think we as a society are well past the point of diminishing returns when it comes to seatbelts - the education campaigns worked, everyone knows they should wear one, and there's a financial disincentive for ignoring that knowledge. Now it is time to let go and realize that freedom means accepting that some people will make bad decisions.

 

[beatlesblonde]

I don't even have to think about putting on my seatbelt, it's done purely out of habit. I mean I get in the car and pull the door closed and the seatbelt is right there next to the door so I grab it.