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Published on Wednesday, July 30, 2003
in the Tampa Tribune
TAMPA - The white Plymouth tumbled, and so did the bodies inside. Heads and limbs slammed against the roof, seats and doors before they sailed through the windows and landed on the pavement.
The Plymouth is a simulator that spins about 15 mph.
The bodies are cloth dummies weighing about 50 pounds.
But the beating they take is similar to what motorists and passengers experience when not wearing seat belts, said Florida Highway Patrol Trooper Reginald Edwards.
Edwards, an occupant protection specialist, takes the simulator to high schools, day care centers, anywhere he can offer a demonstration. His mission is to save lives by showing people how to protect themselves in a crash.
``In all the crashes I've investigated, if they had their seat belts on, they would have survived,'' said the 18-year veteran.
Seat Belts Save Lives
Statistics from the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles show that more than half the drivers and occupants in crashes in 2001 suffered no injuries because they used seat belts, airbags or both.
Seat belts don't save people every time; sometimes the impact is too severe, Edwards said. But they offer crucial protection, first from the aftershocks of every collision.
After the initial impact, everything in the car - passengers, books, pens, loose change - continues to move. And anything not secured slams into something else.
Your internal organs also take a beating. ``Your brain hits your skull. Your heart hits your rib cage,'' Edwards said.
Buckling up also keeps you from being ejected onto the road if the vehicle overturns, he said. Some vehicles roll or land on top of ejected passengers, such as a 14-year-old Tampa boy killed in a church bus crash on Florida's Turnpike in June, and an 11-year-old Tampa girl killed at Interstate 275 and Sligh Avenue this month.
People think they can hold on tight to something in a crash, but the vehicle's speed and the force of impact magnify a person's body weight, making that impossible, Edwards said.
``If you're wearing a seat belt correctly, you've got a lot of control over what takes place. You become one with the vehicle,'' he said.
``The car acts like a cage in a lot of cases. It's nice to be kept inside that cage.''
Wear It Properly
A lap belt is good to secure a child safety seat but offers no upper-body protection, Edwards said.
Some retractable belts that go across the upper body and lap are flexible enough to allow the wearer to move around. All automatically lock like a ratchet in an emergency, he said.
Wearing the belt behind your back or under an arm defeats its purpose and puts you at risk of losing a limb in a high-speed collision, Edwards said.
``It can cut your arm off,'' he said.
The belt releases once the car stops, so people should not be afraid that the belt will trap them inside the car, Edwards said. ``At the worst, it's a piece of material that can be cut.''
The belt's fabric can stretch while saving you in a serious collision, so if the car is repairable, the seat belts should be replaced, he added.