Posted by Matt Wilson on Tuesday, October 22, 2002 at 10:23PM :
In Reply to: Seat belts and air bags are... posted by Tyler on Tuesday, October 22, 2002 at 8:59PM :
50-50 is not what the stats show. In light of your statement above, 50-50 means that half of the time, the person would be saved by the safety device, and the other half of the time, the person would be killed by the safety device. But that's not what any of the stats show. There are cases here and there where a seat belt or an airbag caused more harm than it prevented, but by and large, far more people have been saved by such devices, especially seat belts, than have been killed or seriously hurt.
Another good safety feature is the collapsible steering column. Prior to these, people just got impaled when they impacted another object hard enough, like when their single-circuit brake systems quit on them.
Don't get me wrong, I love simplicity of machinery and simplicity of life. That's why I enjoy my flatfender Power Wagon, and I drive it to work several times a week. I hate having to work on a modern vehicle with the much increased complexity, but I believe that many of those complex devices are there for good reasons. It took me a long time to appreciate the fact that there are some darn good reasons for at least some of the things that have been developed in recent years. But I now realize that there is a calculated risk in climbing into my Power Wagon, and I believe this risk is greater in many areas than the risk I would take by climbing into a brand new Dodge 1-ton 4x4.
Not trying to start an argument, but just trying to present the facts as I have learned them.
Matt
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