Interesting Missouri road sign

There must be. Driving around I see it all the time. I always wear mine, but still don’t believe the government should tell me I have to. Motorcycle riders don’t have to wear helmets.

Read what it says on the “thing”.

Basically a “not our fault if you get a ticket or get killed using it”




.

The reason? They are stupid.

My life has been saved twice by belts.

Not having one on saved my life once. I was a back seat passenger in a full sized Chevy with two coworkers in the front seat and we were just a few minutes into our trip home after our night shift ended. We had stopped at a stop light and I had already scooted forward on the back seat to rest my head on the upper seatback for my usual twenty minute "nap".

We were rear-ended by a guy in a VW beetle who had apparently also begun a nap while at the wheel, as there was no sound of screeching tires and no black skid marks leading to the collision. The impact was squarely into back of my co-workers 2 year old Chevy and totalled it.

I was thrown forward hard enough that it broke my nose when my face hit the back of the drivers seat, but we were otherwise uninjured. I'm pretty sure that had I been sitting erect in the seat as I would have been if strapped in, my neck would have been snapped.

As it was it took me a minute to gather my thoughts and check with the front seat passengers to see if they were OK, and get out and walk back to the VW to check on the guy who hit us. He was still sitting upright in the drivers seat but as I opened the driver door to check on him, I noticed that the wheel rim was no longer in its place at the end of the steering column, but was rocking slightly left and right while hanging over the steering column, and as I looked again at the driver, who appeared initially to be OK, I could see that he was taking very short, raspy breaths, and I could see that there was a crease across his shirt front marking where the wheel had center-punched his chest. And the next breath he took had a ragged nature that I'd heard enough times in the woods to know it was likely his last.

Partly because of that experience, I was also slow to buckle up, but eventually I gave in to the evidence that even though there were some exceptions to the rule, I would be safer to buckle up. I admit I was still not very reliably buckled in until most of my driving was done in cars with the aggravating beepers. I know I could defeat them, but it seems like more trouble than I care to do make life a little riskier than it already is.

Dad bought a 1956 ford wagon and ordered the seat belt option. I have been wearing seatbelts ever since.
I have heard the stories about not having them on saved a life. And I am sure there are true stories both ways. I always wear mine. Just the amount of drivers blowing through stop lights is enough for me.