Is it safer to wear seatbelts, or not?

[SomeNewGuy]

A rollover crash is an army truck is alot different than that of a rollover crash in a civilian truck. I have seen a few of the crashed 7 tons in person....the oshkosh cabs do hold up alot better than the older trucks. As I have seen first hand what a semi going 50mph can do to one and it didn't do too bad. This was a HEMTT cab of course so it has different reinforcements. A M939 ROPS would fair pretty well in a roll over as well. Hint as to why they have kidney protect seats. Harnesses and a massive overhead area with a cage inside.

7 tons in a roll over do not fair too well as evidence suggests.

Most accidents I understand are not going to be a rollover but corrective action is what will cause the rollover in my opinion which is why we have the thread of " hold the lane or avoid an accident" in the conversation section

https://www.steelsoldiers.com/threads/swerve-or-hold-lane.189178/

A thread from a member shootiniron who perished in his M35A3 as you can see what was left of the cab.

R.I.P--SHOOTINIRON--James Ruman

Good guy and member of SS was involved in a fatal accident. His A3 is damaged beyond belief. Not many details. James was a good guy and just moved to a great area of Utah with lots of plans. And he really loved his trucks. I'll miss him. Here's a link to the A3 recovery...

www.steelsoldiers.com

The problem of a seat belt in the trucks is what you can hit while in the belt around the cab vs getting ejected if and when it goes over. Or the cab entirely being ejected from the vehicle.

evidence suggests one member may have survived his accident in a HEMTT had he been wearing a seat belt that would have kept him off the center console section during the impact. Maybe, maybe not.

Had I been wearing my seat belt when my truck rolled over I would have been beaten up severely by the ac unit and pinned in the cab off the ground. I was able to actually control my body in the cab when the truck rolled on its side.

High center of gravity vehicle that is prone to roll over I would suggest not wearing one unless it has a ROPS. Low center of gravity like a HEMTT i would suggest so. Unarmored LMTVs
Fair horribly in rollovers. Armored ones fair pretty good.

The measure of the accident and the outcome is your choice to hold the road or avoid it. Most big truck drivers perish trying to avoid hitting someone who did something stupid and went on down the road like nothing happened

I gotta say, it looks like that cab held up pretty well and his death was likely caused due to blunt force trauma to the head, maybe a combination of age too spice it up. It sayed pretty much intact anddoes not seem like it compressed enough to ruin his whole body. Likely that it was crushed into him, and he was thrown into it, at the same time.

Either way, without a seatbelt, probably would have suffered the same fate as a head injury at highway/main drag speeds are about as likely as geeting a paper cut at some point in your life, seatbelt or no unless you have a side airbag.

I have not read all the replied in this thread yet, tho I intend to. But do far I think what we are mssing is the idea of how fagile we are, I see many have already touched on luck...

I personally have been in 5 wrecks (none as the driver) one of which where we rolled 3 times before coming to a halt. Front passanger was wearing a seatbelt, and the lap band put so much pressure on his gut it severed his intestines internally in a few spots. The guy behind him, wasnt wearing his belt and was ejected from the car, almost landing on his feet.

This anicdotal evidence could be construed as seatbelt bad! However the data overall simply does not support this. At the end of the day, even a rugby player at 19 in peak fitness can be cut up and almost killed by the same thing that is supposed to save his life. Risks in all things, as the good world works.

When it comes to MVs, I think the conversation should be less "should I wear my seatbelt" and more "should I wear my helmet". Again, a head injury in a car accident is pretty much guaranteed and bouncing your noggin off the (realativly) soft interior of a civi vic made with that in mind, is very different than bouncing it off the interior steel/aluminum/frame of a MV without protection.

At the end of the day, I've seen people survive all sorts of nasty things to their body below the neck. Its when the head gets involed that its a lot more touch and go. Even when you make it, you may not be all there.

Stay safe gents. Beware the morons on the road.