Things that worry me (and what worries you the most?)

[Doohicksie]

The study I saw, if I recall correctly, was in regard to buses.  If you're older than a certain age, you may recall school bus seats used to be much shorter.  They looked at several ways to minimize injuries in crashes and determined that raising and padding the seat backs were the most effective way to minimize injuries in a crash.  As I recall, part of the reason was that they figured kids wouldn't buckle up (or would unbuckle themselves) anyway.

And those belts are what we wore growing up.

 

You should have seen what passed for a "car seat."

 

We should all be dead right now.

[Eleven]

The study I saw, if I recall correctly, was in regard to buses.  If you're older than a certain age, you may recall school bus seats used to be much shorter.  They looked at several ways to minimize injuries in crashes and determined that raising and padding the seat backs were the most effective way to minimize injuries in a crash.  As I recall, part of the reason was that they figured kids wouldn't buckle up (or would unbuckle themselves) anyway.

 

We should all be dead right now.

 

 

I remember the buses with the shorter seats.  They were the older buses that we'd get if a newer one was out of service or something.

 

I don't remember seat belts even being an option on either type.

[Iron Crotch]

I worry about numbers. There's, like, too many of them.

[MattPie]

I remember the buses with the shorter seats.  They were the older buses that we'd get if a newer one was out of service or something.

 

I don't remember seat belts even being an option on either type.

 

Seat belts started showing up on some of our buses in the early 90s, but no one ever wore them.

[Doohicksie]

I remember the buses with the shorter seats.  They were the older buses that we'd get if a newer one was out of service or something.

 

I don't remember seat belts even being an option on either type.

 

No, they never put seatbelts on them.  They figured kids wouldn't use them anyway.

Seat belts started showing up on some of our buses in the early 90s, but no one ever wore them.

 

Well, not that I saw, anyway....  :angel:

[darksabre]

Seat belts started showing up on some of our buses in the early 90s, but no one ever wore them.

All of our buses had lap belts from day one, so yeah, the 90's. But we never wore them. We even got told specifically not to wear them. Consensus was that it would be easier to get kids out in an emergency if they weren't all buckled in. 

[SabresFanInRochester]

I do worry about people driving and texting.

I used to be one of those a-holes, until a friend of mine lost his 8-year old son in a car crash. The driver was distracted and blew through a stop sign. Having 2 kids that age, it made me think of how selfish I had been. I have not been the same since.

[TrueBlueGED]

So you guys are saying lap belts are the safety equivalent of participation trophies? Responsible for countless deaths and eventually the downfall of modern civilization? And oh man, imagine putting a lap belt on, or giving a participation trophy to, a millennial?!?! The sun may as well go supernova! TO THE DOOMSDAY BUNKER!

Edited April 13, 2017 by TrueBlueGED

[Doohicksie]

All of our buses had lap belts from day one, so yeah, the 90's. But we never wore them. We even got told specifically not to wear them. Consensus was that it would be easier to get kids the bodies out in an emergency if they weren't all buckled in. 

 

fify :death:

[darksabre]

fify :death:

Nahhhhh kids just bounce around. If it were a bus full of adults, well...

[pi2000]

For rear seat passengers, a lap belt with no shoulder harness is worse than no seat belt at all.  Seriously.

 

Think about the dynamics of a sudden stop do to collision:  The hips are anchored, but the upper body is not.  What happens?  The upper body pivots forward about the hips until the head hits the back for the front seat, smashing the person's face on the seat with a concentrated force and pushing the head back relative to the torso, resulting in neck damage.

 

No seat belt?  The rear seat occupant's entire body moves forward and hits the back of the front seat with the loads distributed over the entire body instead of concentrated at the head.

 

For a little background:  I'm a mechanical engineer and yes, I've conducted a crash test or two in the auto industry.

 

Seatbelts aren't just to stop you from moving forward, they're to keep you in the car in the event of a rollover... I had two cousins die that way (one crushed in a rollover and the other severe head trauma after being ejected from the car) in separate incidents... RIP Jeff and Kevin.     A single lap belt would've saved both their lives.

[Doohicksie]

Understood.  It's a matter of probabilities.  There are many more frontal impact kinds of collisions than rollovers.