Every day defense

[MasterPain]

I like threads like this because everyone presents well thought out points of debate and the threads never turn into nasty arguments. I get a chance to understand a different perspective.

Kudos to Patrick for creating a forum like this and providing the oversight that doesn't permit trolling.

Haha, even when you feel like you're talking to a brick wall, it's a very POLITE brick wall.

[JiuJitsuNation]

Really, it's not a 'good and evil' thing.. I study transportation, so I know the costs and compromises involved. They are pretty much 'unsafe at any speed', much easier to get rid of for most people who don't live on a farm than people imagine, and involve a lot of hidden issues that I personally feel are incompatible with my values. Plus, the financial costs are easy for many people to overlook, and they are higher than I want to factor into my family's budget without good reason.

Still, the safety factor is a major concern to me. I have family who has killed people on the road.

Driving a car using seat belts and obeying the laws seems to me to be similar to walking through a creepy abandoned lot on your way to work - but it's okay because you have light, situational awareness, and a cell phone.. Yes, you have taken good and relevant precautions to minimize the risk, but it would be better yet to change your routine to remove the need to walk through the dangerous place in the first place.

I've never really put much thought into eliminating vehicles from my budget. It sounds like you have way more information on the subject than most would know there is to consider. Your point of view seems unique and I'd like to hear more as it seems you are just scratching the surface.

I've been shoulders deep in a windshield twice in my life. Once on the passenger side and once driving. Behind the wheel was worse. Even though the glass is made so you don't receive major cuts, they are still picking glass out of your face and head.

People make choices everyday with little regard to consequences. Some play sports that cripple will them and make no complaints ever. Some people smoke their entire lives and make no complaints when they find out they have developed cancer. Now whether or not they actually fear what comes or not is only known to them, they seem to at least live in peace with themselves and the world around them. I don't give much thought to where the oil comes from, how many degrees hotter the planet is this year or whether or not the people we are calling terrorists are actually terrorists. Let another country occupy the united states and see if we don't shoot them in the face on a daily basis. Our perceptions and ideas are forever being influenced by greater powers. Someone wants us to follow them... always.

[Nevinyrral]

I always wear seat belts, its the first thing I do after geting into a car. They can realy save your life, I unfortunatelly tested it.

[bushido_man96]

I wear my seatbelt a lot more than I used to, and I have no excuse for the few times I don't wear it.

I've only been working the road as a Deputy for close to a year now, and have already seen two fatality accidents, both of which were not wearing seatbelts, and those are just the ones I've worked. I've been on scene with similar accidents, but the results were different, because the driver had a seatbelt on.

It seems that whenever ejections happen, that out-of-control vehicle always finds a way of rolling over the ejected person. Not cool, folks.

[sperki]

People make choices everyday with little regard to consequences. Some play sports that cripple will them and make no complaints ever.

In Salt Lake County it is required that EMT's be present at all high school football games. I think that says something about the risk involved. People don't usually die playing football, but they certainly get injured regularly enough. On the road people die every day in cars, but there are significantly more people driving than playing football. I don't know the numbers, but I would think, statistically speaking, automobiles are fairly safe, and get safer all the time. I ride my bike to work most days, but its only three miles. And when I have class it's just not an option to take a bike and / or public transport from class to work in a timely manner. When I am in a car I always wear a seatbelt. I don't really understand why somebody wouldn't; it's sort of like smoking - we KNOW these behaviors kill people sooner than life otherwise would, and if you survive quality of life decreases eventually. Of course the grim reaper catches up with all of us eventually, I suppose its a risk vs. reward question for folks.

[rmurray]

Funny post. I've often wondered that about the police. (no disrespect to the men and women in law enforcement especially Bushido Man) but the number of police killed by gunfire is nearly identical to the number killed in traffic accidents (check; Officer down memorial page). However police use deadly force in self defense at the very first inclination that they may be in danger; yet they don't seem to take any precautions when driving/parking their patrol cars. Just my observation as a law abiding citizen. I actually do really appreciate the work law enforcement does.

[Lupin1]

You know what I've never seen? A policeman buckle up the person they stick in the back of their patrol car. I mean, I wouldn't want to-- they'd probably try to bite, but still.... Makes you think.

[JusticeZero]

I don't know the numbers, but I would think, statistically speaking, automobiles are fairly safe, and get safer all the time.

Statistically speaking, getting into an automobile is the single most dangerous thing most people do. It is the leading cause of death between the ages of 3 and 30 for everyone in the world. After 30, people start dying of health problems, some of which probably wouldn't have been so dangerous if they had gotten more exercise.

Cars kill as many people as the equivalent of three jumbo jets plowing into the side of a mountain every week; about 40,000+. Since seat belts, safety improvements only make tiny dents in this number.

The fuel crisis a couple years ago saved over ten thousand lives; the fatality numbers dropped by some eleven thousand or so when everyone slowed down to save gas. We're back above the panic point that made people drive that slowly; gas is more expensive now than it was when people were panicking about fuel crises; but nobody seems to care.

In case you're curious, not only are you significantly safer on your bicycle, but you boost your life expectancy in other ways. Including from air pollution, as a bicycle rider on the road in city traffic in intersections and such actually has half the exposure to exhaust fumes that a car passenger does.

If you worry about American troops, seven percent of the oil used in the U.S. was produced, ultimately, by Persian Gulf countries, some of whom are probably bankrolling the people blowing them up. Because of the way that oil is mixed, traded back and forth, sent through pipelines in batches, refined, mixed, traded around, tanked, then delivered to fuel stations from whatever source is most economical at the moment, there is absolutely no way to reduce one's share of involvement in that, according to the US Department of Energy.

[MasterPain]

However police use deadly force in self defense at the very first inclination that they may be in danger;

Much of that is lack of serious unarmed training. If I believed I was in serious danger, I'd escalate force. Part of determining danger is a consideration of ability to fight.

[albeaver89]

My grandmather would have died if she was wearing a seatbelt