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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxt!houxm!mtuxo!mtunh!mtung!mtunf!ariel!vax135!cornell!uw-beaver!tikal!cholula!persci!bill
From: bill@persci.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.politics,net.legal
Subject: Re: Re: Seat Belts
Message-ID: <310@persci.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 30-Jul-85 18:08:18 EDT
Article-I.D.: persci.310
Posted: Tue Jul 30 18:08:18 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 1-Aug-85 22:26:20 EDT
References: <316@baylor.UUCP> <145@batman.UUCP> <2193@amdcad.UUCP>
Reply-To: bill@persci.UUCP (William Swan)
Distribution: net
Organization: Personal Scientific, Woodinville WA
Lines: 30
Xref: watmath net.politics:10192 net.legal:1950
Summary: 

In article <2193@amdcad.UUCP> phil@amdcad.UUCP (Phil Ngai) writes:
>>> An alternate solution to heavy seat-belt laws: [...]
>>> Insurance companies stop paying for injuries that would have been prevented
>>> by wearing a seatbelt. [...]
>>> Any legal objections? Anybody out there with the pull to support this?
>>thing was proposed as an alternative.  It got shot down primarily by
>>practical considerations--If a non-seat belt user was in an accident, it
>>was pointed out, all they had to do (assuming they were conscious),
>>was to quickly buckle up their belts before the dust settled.
>
>I believe that if a seat belt user is involved in an accident, the selt
>belt will stretch enough that investigators can easily tell the selt belt
>has been through an accident.  > Phil Ngai

From experience, I can testify that this is true. It's surprising the kind of
evidence that a trained investigator can find. 

I had an accident where I was rear-ended by a car massing more than twice
mine, traveling about 35-50 MPH upon impact. I had my left-turn signal going
(and my brakes on -OUCH!-), which was verified by the particular way the
remnants of the bulb's filaments deposited themselves upon the remnants of
the bulb!

Anyway, why couldn't the insurance company simply nullify the policy if
the owner of the policy sustained injuries that wouldn't occur if he had
been wearing his belt? (I know, this merely narrows the margin where it
is questionable, yet it becomes pretty small.) I dislike paying higher
premiums because other people don't wear their belts. 
-- 
William Swan  {ihnp4,decvax,allegra,...}!uw-beaver!tikal!persci!bill