I recently read an article written by a paramedic about how stupid it is to drive without your seat belt fastened. Really, really stupid…

The potential (and avoidable) injuries are pretty frightening – and well described. If you don’t always fasten your seat belt then I recommend reading the whole thing. But here is a great paragraph from the article:

“In a collision, you have three or four sub-collisions all taking place in sequence. First, the vehicle hits some object. The vehicle abruptly slows, but unrestrained objects inside it continue at the same speed, in the same direction. Then the unrestrained body hits the interior of the vehicle, and starts to slow. That’s the second collision. That body’s internal organs are still moving at speed until they hit the inside of the chest (or get cheese-sliced by their supporting ligaments-and that’s where you get things like bisected livers or aortas). The fourth collision is when the bowling ball you left on the rear deck hits you in the back of the head, because that continued at the same speed in the same direction. Newtonian physics: Learn it, live it, love it.”