Plea to My HAMB Brothers & Sisters

I have this image in my mind that I cannot shake. Probably going to keep me from sleeping tonight. and lots of others. Today about 11AM, in the rain, I came upon an accident that had just happened. Late model Chev PU in a ditch, obviously had hydroplaned, rolled, all glass out, sitting back on its wheels. Stopped to see if I could help, the truck was on top of a girl. probably early 20s. She was on her stomach, feet sticking out of the right side behind the rt front wheel, the rest of her body under the truck with her head probably near the lft front wheel, engine, exhaust, suspension on top of her, wheels/tires in the mud. A man had a jack trying to jack the truck up so we could get her out but it was just sinking into the mud. No one had a shovel. She was obviously dead but we had to try to get her out just in case she wasn't. We were helpless, finally DPS, ambulance, etc arrived and I left. Two young guys that were in the truck, one obviously the driver, were freaking out. She obviously wasn't wearing a seat belt, was thrown from the truck, truck landed on top of her.
I don't mean to bum everyone out, just make sure everyone buckles up, don't let ANYONE ride in your vehicle without a seat belt. Your chances of survival are much greater if you are not ejected from the vehicle.
Sorry, just gotta get this out of my head somehow.

 

Man Eddie, that is hard to read. I once hit a bridge at 65mph, belt saved me from flying out the windshield. I really need to bolt the belts in my touring.

 

My girlfriend works in a hospital. I couldn't hardly get her to wear a belt before she started, now she buckles up every time. Not many people survive a serious crash without a belt, and those that do probably wish they hadn't. She's taking care of one guy who's missing half his skull do to road rash, and has a machine breathing for him from now on. It's a simple thing to wear one, I don't understand why people refuse.

 

Hard thing to have to experience BelllM...

I don't OWN a car without seat belts...my '40 Stude has lap AND shoulder belts...and so do all of my other cars...the rad chopped '57 included! You're stupid as hell if you think you'll survive a roll-over without them...
Get 'em and wear 'em...most states have laws for that!

R-

 

I'm really sorry you had to see that today.

Guys, wear your seat belts.

Sam.

 

For us NON-medical/emt/police/firefighters that don't see that sorta thing everyday, it sure is a bad site. It sticks with you for a long time too, really makes you re-evaluate safety and your habits.

Back in high school some kids rolled up on a friend of mine and tried to race him, they were in a Grand Am, and he was in a turbocharged Autocross-racing Toyota MR2. needless to say they were not going to win, but they were drunk & stoned. The tires lost grip, spun out, hit two HUGE Corpus Christi palm trees and spit both driver & passenger out. Driver died, passenger is now brain dead. I was first on the scene after I saw them pass me and then heard the wreckage. I couldn't get it out of my head for a long time.

 

Good friend of mine's step daughter was out with the father and his girlfriend. He was drunk and running about 80 on a country road. The girl was about 3. They hit a dip and the car lost control and rolled into a field. It had been raining so the field was very muddy. The girl flew out of the car and the car landed on top of her...

And she was fine! Barely a scratch! The weight of the car pushed her down into the mud and she lived. I still find it hard to believe. The girl is 8 now and my friend and his wife do everything they can to keep the girl away from her natural father. She MUST be blessed and will grow up to do great things.

 

Always wear mine, I mean Geez U ARE ALREADY SITTING DOWN, what's the big deal !, just buckle up. Not brain science. Never understand ppl who don't wear them (if they are fitted).

Sorry to hear about your experience BELLM.

Maiki

 

oh fuck ,its so hard to read that stuff and i am one of those stupid guys who never wear a belt ,i dont even buid them into my cars :-( god damn but i will change that .

 

Here's a question for discussion? In an open, fenderless car, are we better off with seat belts or without them? I have owned a 32 highboy, 26 tub and now I'm getting close to having my 26 modified on the road-I honestly don't know. Many of you have probably seen Winged Sprints run and what happens when the tires touch each other. I have been a corporate Safety
Officer for 14 years. I preach seat belt usage. I honestly don't know about the open wheel-open car issue though. I would think we would be better off staying in the vehicle. I don't mean to highjack this thread but this is a good opportunity to discuss seat belt usage in our rides. Sam

 

Damn BELLM thats rough, my brother's a paramedic and I have no idea how he deals with the shit that he has to see on a daily basis... whenever I get into my car the seatbelt is on before the key is put into the ignition, i've never really thought about it just part of my routine I guess.

 

I can relate, a couple years ago. I was at a local dirt track watching the final "enduro". A rae that pretty much everything goes. A car rolled, the passenger fell out of the car was trying to get off the track, was in s doggy style posistion when WHAM, a car ran over him. Cam to rest on him. (I still have that few seconds of horror in my head) Anyway, lifestar flew in, they took him away. Unbelievably, the guy mad a full recovery. After that happened I've never been in a vehicle without buckling up....

 

I'd like to take a poll and see just how many here even have belts in the vehicles. After all they ain't traditional ya know
Some of us..... even me, know first hand the need for there use. I was on an ambulance squad for ten years volunteer.
I have intentions of putting them in, spend countless hour screwing around everything else on the car but haven't taken the time or money to install them.
Come on guys! Me included... Get them in and put them on!
I'm such a dumbass.......

 

Sorry to hear about the accident. I have lost a couple of friends due to no seat belt. All my vehicles have them and my daughter never goes anywhere without buckling up. I have witnessed some screwed up things like that at work the best thing I can say is try to talk about it.
Eric

 

i used to drive a wrecker and do some serious repo work, and some of the shit i ve seen on the wreck end of it, i know how it is not to sleep at night. the worst part was picking up a car to find one of my good friendswife and little girl under it. dead. 100 degrees, middle of no where, and the flys, waiting on the coroner, helpless. i truly feel for all who have witnessed it or expereinced it.

 

Some people think that they can defy the law, some are young and are "invincible" for the rest of us, we know better, I am not a big advocate of government intervention, but wearing a seatbelt is one law that i really in favor of.

 

When I was a kid, my folks wouldn't even start the car till everyone was belted in. I always wore one. Then for four years I either rode a motorcycle or drove my 59 F100 (with no belts) everyday and got out of the habit. Today, I get in and out of my truck about 50 times a day and it seems like a pain in the ass to keep taking it off and putting it on, but I have to remember that I have kids depending on my dumb ass to get home and raise them so I do it.
A guy flipped in front of me on I-70 about three months ago and I got stopped before he did. He was laying face down on the hood of his own truck with his feet still in the cab after five barrel rolls. I pulled him out expecting him to come out in two pieces but he was lucky. I told him to buy a lottery ticket on his way to the hospital. I've got pix but they are too big for here. It happens amazingly fast.
By contrast, my best friend hit a semi head on on SR37 about six years ago. My friend was going and estimated 90MPH and the semi was doing 65 MPH. Do the math there. A 1993 Dodge Shadow vs a Peterbilt at a combined 155 MPH. I had to go get the possessions out of what was left of the car at the impound lot. I was stunned. The car literally ceased to exist at the firewall. The police take extensive photographs at any fatality scene and I looked at them out of disbelieving curiousity before throwing them away (didn't want his mom to ever see them). Greg looked like he was sleeping, completely intact and not even bloody. His shoes were even still on the pedals in the car at the lot. He died because his organs were going 155 MPH and his body was going 0 MPH. The seatbelt broke alot of his bones but he looked okay. But I honestly think he had a shot of surviving even this accident if he wasn't going so damned fast. It's not just seatbelts...it's not driving like a dumbass. We all get our cars topped out somewhere at some time and it's a calculated risk even for experienced drivers. So much can happen in an uncontrolled environment (not like the track). The problem is that you don't just kill yourself. And if you make your kids wear a seatbelt and you don't, you are just strapping them in to face your 200 pound projectile body during a crash. I guess that answers the T-bucket question for me. Will it save you? Maybe not, but it might keep you from going through the windshield of the Dodge Caravan that hit you and taking out the whole family inside. I say that half jokingly but a family hit a loose cow here at night and it killed all five people inside when the cow came through the windshield. 900 pounds at 45 MPH can do that. You can too.

 

In my almost 15 years on the force I have seen more dead people in accidents than I ever care to see, including people who I have grown up with. Even in an open top car I would still wear the seatbelt because when you are thrown from a vehicle you continue the same direction the car is going and will most likely be run over by your own car. Very few times have I seen a car roll and the person not get hit by the car when they are ejected. I can still visualize the imprint of a caddy hubcap on one poor dudes face after he was hit by his car after being thrown out. Wear 'em....if not for yourself, for your kids. Uncle scoobys post on projectiles brings up another good point about kids. Make damn sure you buckle them in, I won't describe what I once saw happen to a small child who was ejected ...fuck now that sight is going to be stuck in my head again for days.

 

Thats a sucky day Eddie - sorry sorry sorry.......I thought you had been a little quiet......

 

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=48790

 

Bellm
I'm with you bro. Burried to many and for the most part avoidable.
No way to make the image go away friend. Sorry you got to live with it.

 

What a bad situation to have to go through. I am pretty good about wearing my belt in my daily driver. I was debating on if I was going to put them in my 51 at first, but it is stuff like this that help me decide I need to. Sometimes you get so caught up in your day to day stuff that you forget to be thankful for the basic things you have. Stuff like this reminds you that you can loose it in a heartbeat. I hear people complaining about how bad their life is (and I will admit I have been guilty of it, although I try not to be anymore) because of really trivial stuff and then you hear about stuff like this happening to families and it really makes you thankful for what you have. Sorry you had to go through that.

 

I don't know who I feel more sorry for, the poor girl who lost her life or those left behind. There is nothing more difficult than to have to stand by and watch someone else suffer without being able to help them. In CA the law mandates seatbelts so most folks wear them to avoid a ticket/fine, I guess with me it's gotten to be habit now. Your story was very difficult to read but if it helps just one of us think before we dirve off without buckling up then it was well worth the read...

 

Well Eddie, let me start by saying that you are a good man for stopping and trying to help. Many people don't these days and it's a shame. I am REALLY sorry that it was that kind of experience. It's indescribably hard when you are trying your best but know things are a lost cause. But it's a good thing to get off your chest, especially here where it may help some of the younger or more careless HAMBers remember why the belts are there.

Have a whiskey, talk it out of your system, and know in your heart that you did all you could have done.

Take care brother.

 

Man, that's sad to hear. My nephew is a paramedic and has many stories to tell about accidents he has worked. He insists on wearing a seat belt and makes sure his passengers do too. A friend of mine is a retired highway patrol officer. He says that he never had to unbuckle a dead body in any of the accidents he worked during his career. As a truck fleet manager, I have made it company policy for our drivers to wear seatbelts. However, like MOJunk, I have a fenderless, open-top car that I wasn't planning on putting belts in. I may re-think that.

 

i suck, i suck big time, almost never wear seatbelt, one out of 30 trips maybe, i really suck,
thanx for the reminder, thinking of it an minor accident that without safetybelt would be the death of me, and with safetybelt on not... my kid do not deserve a potential death in an potential crash just because im to ignorant..

my life might suck otherwise except for the fact my kid is there in my life, and she sure do not deserve her only father passing away because of ignorance and lazyness, from now on i will darnint use that safety belt everytime there is one i can use, and heck i will install belts in all my cars eventually

 

and also, speed limits are usually there for a limit,
and the higher the speed is the bigger is the impact..

and speeding do not really timewise let you earn that much time anyhow, sure its fun to drive fast but.. some times it sure sure isnt worth it at all

 

Epilogue:

http://www.kmil.com/Localnews2005/0316wreck.htm

My condolences to the family.
r

 

"Christie Johnston was a passenger in a 2004 Chevrolet Pickup driven by Joseph Gallahan, 28 also of Austin.* According to investigating Trooper Michael Nix, Gallahan lost control on the rain-slick road and rolled, ejecting Ms. Johnston, and pinni0ng [sic] her underneath the vehicle ... Ms. Johnston was Gallahan’s fiancée."


Tough way to lose a future wife.

I'd hate to be in his shoes.