>>>>>Seat belts are forced on people by the government. First they started with the driver, then both front seat passengers, now, in TN, everyone in the vehicle must wear them.
>>>>>
>>>>>Motorcycle riders must wear helmets in many states.
>>>>>
>>>>>Smokers are not allowed to smoke in their own homes in some states.
>>>>>
>>>>>In some states, only cops and criminals can carry guns.
>>>>>
>>>>>Those laws bother me more than the government monitoring phone calls and emails that involve people from other countries. It's a different day.
>>>>
>>>>Balderdash! The examples impinge only on your right to kill yourself, or have your back-seat kids kill you in an accident - and you a cop and all! OK, smoking in your own home, unless that's qualified to say "where kids are present", say, is a bit much
>>>
>>>The point was that we are slowly losing freedoms....
>>
>>But you can very quickly lose a great deal more if you don't wear a seat belt. Besides, it's not just a case of eroding YOUR freedoms - how about the right to life of the innocent passengers in the car, esp. the kids, who haven't been educated as to the advantages of belts?
>>
>My life was saved because I WASN'T wearing a seat belt. I had an accident when I was about 17, where a woman ran a stop sign and totalled the van I was driving. I don't know if I went out the windshielf or the door, because it knocked me out. But, I was thrown into the street and ultimately on the curb, while the van flipped over about three times and wound up wrapped around a tree. My parents came to the accident site after I had already been transported to the hospital, and my mother said she just knew I was either mangled or dead. All I had was scraped knees and a little bout with shock.
>I can tell you without fear of contridiction, I wouldn't want to try that again, and if I had been wearing a seat belt, I would not be here today!


In that case you're probably right. But I don't think there is much doubt left that on balance seat belts save lives. The safest combination of all is seat belts plus air bags.