Do you wear a seat belt?

Nurses General Nursing

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I know we sometimes feel like we need one at work, but I am talking about when you are in your (or someone else's) car? I was astounded years ago when I worked Trauma to discover that the Director of the program did not wear a seat belt. Granted the guy is convinced he is God in the flesh, but still!! I have always been a seat belt wearer and cannot fathom why people don't wear one. I can fathom even less when peole do not properly restrain their kids in cars!!

If you don't wear one, why not????

A girl I went to elementary school with was killed when riding in the back of a truck. It was a remote area and her father lost control of the truck causing her to be thrown out. She was killed when the truck rolled on her. Her dad was just fine, because he had his seatbelt on. I think he should have been charged with murder for killing his 12 year old.

I'm almost sorry I posted on this thread.

I realize you all are passionate about this issue (or at least you appear to be) but I don't see me changing my evil ways anytime soon. I take precautions when the situation calls for it. My kids are too old for booster seats (the youngest is 9). I have tried numerous ways to make a shoulder belt comfortable and I have found none, yet I DO wear it when I think it's needed and so do the rest of the family. I think that a lot of this hoopla is due to fashionable, politically correct media induced ideas. I have been driving for over 30 years and have never been in an accident nor do I know anyone who has been killed or maimed due to non belt use. I realize that it DOES happen but so do hunting accidents and plane crashes. Does that stop us from shooting or flying?

I would not put my family at needless risk!

There is a time and place to be tied down and we are capable of deciding when that is. I don't ALWAYS not wear them.

Can't anyone see that common sense should prevail and one shouldn't just do what the tv tells you to do?

-Russell

Specializes in jack of all trades, master of none.

I can't ever think of a time that I didn't wear one, even before it became the law here in IL.

Specializes in LTC/Peds/ICU/PACU/CDI.

please, please, please don't take all of the advice that you're receiving from everyone as a personal attack on your driving habits...take it as a blessing that you've decided to post what your practices are so that maybe you'll get some information & reconsider.

the folks here just want you to know that weird & freak accidents can & do often occur & that they (we) only wish that you'll reconsider your current seatbelt practices.

rustyhammer, i understand that you all wear your seatbelts when you feel that's it's necessary....but again, it is necessary each & every time you & your family get into a moving vehicle that a seatbelt should & must be worn for safety purposes...nothing else. remember murphy's law...anything that can go wrong usually does (or something like that). you've may not been involved in an accident within your 30 year history of driving doesn't mean that some other driver (drunk or not) can't or won't hit you...no matter how remote your living area is...people have mis, seizures, & cvas all of the time...someone else just might have an attack while behind the wheel of their vehicle & hit yours :rolleyes:.

as far as the kids riding inside the back of your pick-up is concern...that's definitely :eek: risky, even if they're wearing helmets. as one of the above posters pointed-out, your truck might jerk & they might get thrown out or worse yet; your truck might become involved in a sudden windstorm & over turns while the kids are in the back (again, freakier things have happened); or something as plausible & simple as failed breaks could occur & you loose control of the vehicle. again, no one is attacking you, nor are we wishing for something bad to happen, we just want to open your eyes to the worse possible scenarios in order for you to reconsider your practice (or lack there of) of utilizing your seatbelts...comfort should :nono: never even be an issue whenever it comes to your family's precious lives...life is definitely too short as it is...let's not help :chair: death-out anymore than what it needs. i think everyone here will agree with me when i say that we wouldn't ever want to read any future posts of yours where something did happen to any of your family members as a result of being injured or worse from not wearing their seatbelts...such a thing would be very :crying2: tragic despite being totally preventable on your part. we would still, however, support you :blushkiss though in whatever grief that would come from this type of tragic event...should something like this ever happen in that respect, that is.

ok, enough said...i'm jumping off my soap box now!

ok..I'm unsubscribing from this thread and reconsidering how I answer future threads.

-Russell

Specializes in FNP, Peds, Epilepsy, Mgt., Occ. Ed.

Seatbelts? Always, everybody in the car. I've been a nurse too long and seen too many maimed, mangled, or head injured not to insist. That includes two quadraplegic children, and more head injuries than I'd care to count. Adults too, but the children really get to you.

I started wearing seatbelts in 1985, when I got a new car. Six months later I was pregnant, first trimester, and my husband and I were in an accident. I was bruised Concord Grape purple and we were both so sore the next day we had to help each other out of bed. I was deeply thankful it was not my head instead, and my son is now 16. He was in an accident with his dad when my son was 4. Totalled the car, both of them were fine (car seat and seatbelts).

In the last 5 years or so, we've had 5 or 6 friends lose children in motor vehicle accidents, all teens and young adults. That includes a very close friend. The devastation left behind is unimaginable. That's why I insist anybody riding with me buckle up. I couldn't live with knowing I was responsible for anyone else being killed or injured.

TV and politically correct. I am about as politically uncorrect as you can get without being crude (well, most of the time anyway). My passion for seat belt use is from working Trauma ICU for the first few years of my nursing career. Seeing people mourn over their permanently altered relatives who in many cases weren't lucky enough to die. As posted above, it isn't a personal attack on you Rustyhammer, the reason I posted this thread was from my disbelief at my own sister who doesn't put her 5 year old in a booster seat. She has 2 sisters who are nurses, both have trauma experience, and she still thinks it won't happen to her. I hope she is right. In the event she is wrong, she won't get too much sympathy from me. I know that sounds cruel but I have given her the facts and even bought a booster seat which she has chosen not to use. When she got her new car I said I will badger you for the last time "you are putting your kids lives at risk by not having them properly restrained. I don't want to hear that you didn't know if something horrible happens." I hope nothing happens to your kids. I have seen what people have to live with when something does and it isn't pretty.

I also happen to think that people who drink and drive and kill someone should be charged with murder. That's not from ads on TV. That's from losing 3 close friends two and a half years apart. One was struck and killed while jogging and the other 2 were stupid enough to be drinking and driving.

When you see the aftermath, it gives you a whole new perspective!

All I can say is:

ouchs.gif

No car moves - when I am in it until the seatbelts are all done up - regardless of who is driving... me or someone else.... when I am in the car... belts on for everybody...

I've gone so far as to walk home... when people object to my personal rule... since I've seen some pretty messed up people from being hit from a projectile body or object when buckled... it isn't worth my life, others life... and my future....

Yes, allways. Last year on mother's day I hit a deer at 6:00am on my way to work. I was driving a Chevy Metro and the car ended up totaled but thanks to my airbags and seatbelt, I only got a few bruises and scrapes. Driving the roads I do to get to work and back, I make sure I have my seatbelt on.

:chair: :chair: :chair:

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