FWIW, seatbelts help keep your derriere planted in the seat. This does
two things:
1) keeps your body (more) united with the car, so you have better
control over the wheel, pedals
and shift lever; i.e. you're driving, not flopping around in the seat
2) keeping your butt anchored in the seat helps with road feel; i.e.
helps you drive with the
"seat of your pants" sensing yaw, vibration, road holding, traction
limits, etc.
I always give my belt buckle an extra tug when I'm heading into the
twisties.
bs
Philip S. Anson wrote:
>Can't resist coming out of my "lurker mode" (where I'm at almost all of the
>time with regard to this list traffic) to comment on "safety" and how
>seatbelts relate to it. Whenever I'm in my car (1960 BT-7), I always think
>of myself as being in a "4-wheel-motorcycle" and try to drive
>appropriately. Approximately 50% of motorcycle accidents are not the fault
>of the rider, but are due to other factors (like not being seen). I always
>(always) drive "defensively" (in other words, don't stop looking out for the
>rest of the people on the road). Unless one is prone to pushing the limits
>in one's vehicle (i.e. cornering hard enough to lose traction, trying to
>stop too soon for conditions, etc.), using seatbelts won't be all that
>helpful when it comes to avoiding injury in an accident. Our cars are
>unable to passively protect us like more modern vehicles with air bags,
>crush zones, collapsible steering linkage, and the like. I used to have
>seatbelts in the back for my kids when they were young, but more to keep
>them from climbing out than staying in place should we suffer a collision.
>About the only situation where I could envision seatbelts being helpful in
>regard to limiting driver & passenger injury would be in a sudden
>deceleration-type accident, such as striking a stationary object (like a
>tree, which hopefully one can avoid), or a head-on collision (if this
>occurs, it probably is more an example of "when your number's up,."). So,
>as you can surmise, I've foregone seatbelts for the present. .and I try to
>stay out of the rain, off the wet leaves, driving slower than I used to when
>I was younger, mostly in the daytime, & I'm still working on getting a third
>brake light out there ('cuz that's my real fear - getting run down from
>behind - like a true motorcycle driver, I always think I'm fast enough to
>get out of the way of trouble ahead).
>
>
>
>Phil Anson
>
>BT-7
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