When was the last time...

you rode in the front seat of an automobile without wearing a seat belt?

For me, it was this morning. I was headed to the local market, 1/4 mile away from my home, doing 25 miles per hour. It was dumb.

But when was the last time you were on a highway doing over 90 miles per hour, sitting in the front seat, without a seat belt?

For me, that would be sometime circa 1975. Since then, not only is it routine for me to wear seat belts in that situation, but it is downright uncomfortable not to.

So that's why it's unfathomable to me that New Jersey governor Jon Corzine, (a 60 year old like I will be in August) was  not wearing a seat belt last Thursday evening when the SUV in which he was riding slammed into a guardrail on the Garden State Parkway. The vehicle was clocked at 91 mph just prior to the crash. The governor suffered catastrophic injuries: a broken leg, a broken sternum, twelve (!) broken ribs, among others. He's lucky to be alive. His body will never truly be the same.

Use your head: buckle up.

Comments

[Kull]

I share the same thoughts Tom. And shamefully (considering my profession) I have done the same thing going to/from a local market from home or work. However in my vehicles you can't drive ten seconds without your belt on before the most annoying chiming sound in the world blasts your ear drums! In my Ford Escape, even the passenger in the front seat gets the Chime if he/she doesn't buckle up! So what kind of vehicle was the governor in not to have this annoying reminder to buckle up I wonder? Or even worse, did he pay a mechanic to disengage the chime? Crazy.

[Ajlouny]

It's not even a thought when siting in my car to put on my seat belt, just something that's done, like breathing.