> Around here, State of Washington, it's state law.
Nope, WA its only the law if the vehicle came with
them from the factory, OR they were installed (for whatever
reason) later on. As odd as it is, if your truck grandfathers
the law, but someone installed a belt and you get caught not
using it, you get a ticket.....that doesn't make much sense
to me, but thats our laws for yah....
> I don't have any grandchildren, but my teenage daughter has objected to
> driving an old pickup instead of something like that Honda. I need to
> show her this thread to help her understand why I want her in that old
> pickup...
This is simular to the theory that SUV's are "safer"...even
though there has been study after study that says they are not.
Sure, the truck is more likely to survive a head on collision with
an equal mass vehicle....but the occupants sure aren't, especially
in an older vehicle with less than modern safety equipment.
The main point you missed in the example accident, Honda
prelude has a much smaller mass than the truck, therefore had
to obsorbed a LOT more energy than your truck did, even with all
this in consideration the driver of the honda walked away....that
is because of crumple zones and air bags and belts. If the situation
was reversed, I doubt you'd be talking right now.
This is the silly part (IMO) about "safety", the reason that
bigger vehicles are perceived as safer is because of their
mass, takes more mass to affect them than otherwise. The
main disadvantage to this setup is anyone of less mass will
lose against it. So in otherwords, the "perceived" safety
comes from most likely killing any subcompact that you hit.
In a perfect world, everyone would drive simularly massed
vehicles....it would make the roads a lot safer. But that won't
happen any time soon.
>From safety reports, the safest cars (for both the occupants,
and the people that collide with the car) is sedans. They
have higher safety regulations than any SUV or truck, and
have a little more mass than compacts.
But thats considering it purely from statistics. I ride
motorcycles mostly....so that shows how much I follow them.
But I'm not fooling myself on the risks....
Ryan
rlangford@attbi.com
oletrucks is devoted to Chevy and GM trucks built between 1941 and 1959
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