PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum - View Single Post

mgburg · #40 12-29-2006, 04:32 PM

Dont' get this post wrong...

Back in '83, I had a head-on w/a Nissan B210 on Hwy 51, just north of Normal, IL. (Joke: Why do all the idiots live in Bloomington? It's as close to Normal as they can get!) with my FIAT 128 Sport Coupe.

I had just bought the car from an SCCA racer/mechanic - this thing had a bucket seat in it that just "sucked" you down into it...it held you in place almost as if you had been covered from head to toe w/velcro.

Anyways, the best that anyone could determine was that both vehicles had hit mid-grill, on the drivers' side ... because of the road conditions - the cars hit, then spun 180° and separated. On my 128, the battery ended up about 1 foot from my face, spilling its contents onto me (this was after the windshield had popped out from the initial contact.). I had the steering wheel jammed into my chest, where the column contacted me about mid-sternum and the upper-part of the steering wheel smashed into my upper-lip (just below my nose), causing my skull to fracture in a way that both eye-sockets were fractured. My lower jaw remained intack, so it was used as support to re-align my face when I was "wired up" in the ER.

The point?

Had I buckled up (As I should have.), I wouldn't be here. The doctor told me that if I hadn't "lifted" up out of the seat as much as I did, the steering wheel and column would have killed me by fracturing my neck and forehead. I would have "swung" downward into the wheel instead of up and into it the way I did.

Does that mean that I don't buckle up now?

Nope - I buckle up all the time. Just once I was FR***ing LUCKY!

As it is now, I've got stainless steel wiring in my face to this day (X-ray shots are pretty freaky! I'm always asked to explain what's going on!)

Since that day - I've seen too many accidents where the results are as expected w/and w/o belts. My experience was just plain dumb, freakish luck on my part.

Wear your belts. Everyone will be glad you did.