Should we feel sorry for non-seatbelt wearers?

[supersunbird]

Two weekends ago we watched as a person's body was pulled from the wreckage of a "safe" luxury car. The car had caught fire and the seatbelt clip had melted into place. We are not certain, but we are pretty sure the person may have escaped had this not happened. Anyway, this is an anomaly, and should not be used as a reason not to wear a seatbelt. If you don't wear a seatbelt, you definitely have a bigger chance of dying in a serious car accident, and this is definitely evident in the number of survivors (wearing seatbelts) vs those that die (most often not wearing seat belts) I have seen in car crashes.

If the seatbelt clip had melted in to place in such a short time (a few seconds), the person must have been on fire too or unconcious and would have died anyway.

 

[jontyB]

If the seatbelt clip had melted in to place in such a short time (a few seconds), the person must have been on fire too or unconcious and would have died anyway.

No, the carpeting was on fire in the car, but the person's car seat was not, so he was mostly protected from the fire to a large degree. And as I understand it, the intensity of the carpet burning caused the melting of the seatbelt clip. Anyway, as I have mentioned, this is not the norm of accidents we've attended in the past. And in most cases when a car catches fire, it is gutted quite quickly and the occupant(s) will likely burn to death anyway. This particular incident was however one where we suspect had the person had the ability get the seatbelt loose, he may have escaped. This person didn't die of the fire as a direct result, but according to the paramedics on the scene he died from internal injuries. No knowing for sure though, as I am not a forensic investigator. I do know that the fire was limited, but extremely hot and intense along the floor of the vehicle.

 

[RompelStompel]

It was WW2, guy was a crew member of a Lancaster, and he fell through tree branches into a snowdrift. Bloody lucky.

Yugoslav air hostess survived a similar fall - do not remember height she fell from.

As for seatbelt - wear them. Spoke to someone who does postmortems - in his opinion excess speed & not wearing seatbelt leading causes of death in MVA.