I have posted on this before. If you are a cop (or even if you aren’t), please lord wear your seatbelt. I just spent some time with the family of an officer killed in a crash. I frankly don’t know – or want to know – whether he was buckled up. It doesn’t matter now. What does matter is that no one I have been partnered with (thank goodness) has been killed by gunfire, knife wounds, or a fight. I have lost count of colleagues killed in traffic accidents.
I have heard the tactical arguments. I have thought about how long it takes to get out of the car and start shooting. I have tried various methods of taking off the belt in a hurry. In the balance, I would rather live. And you live by having your seatbelt on. Period.
Put on your seatbelt.
Feb 26, 2009 at 11:03 am
Do you read the website “Traffic” by Tom Vanderbilt, the author of a book by the same name? It’s pretty good, and today he had a video about seatbelts.
http://www.howwedrive.com/2009/02/25/traffic-safety-film-of-the-week/
Feb 26, 2009 at 12:30 pm
I tend to agree with you. I also tend to work in some neighborhoods where the seatbelt comes off when I enter and goes back on when I leave.
Feb 27, 2009 at 8:23 am
I must agree, PC. I good friend of mine, who is a cop, lost his son, who was a cop, to a traffic accident one rain-slick night. So far as we know he WAS restrained. But traffic (he was not on a call, not running “emergency,” just cruising) can STILL be a deadly thing, causing LOD deaths.
Bless ‘em all!
406, OUT
Feb 27, 2009 at 8:50 am
I always drive around with my belt on. It comes off a block before I get onscene of a call. It comes off when I pull into shopping centers (I learned that driving up to the front of a store just as robbery tones came out for that store.) And it comes off when I’m creeping through bad neighborhoods.
Going to and from calls, driving around hunting for car stops, etc and I have the belt on. I don’t have to worry about it if the car runs and I suddenly have a lot going on.
I feel like I’ve found a good compromise with safe tactics and safe vehicle operation. It’s certainly better than driving around all the time and never wearing it. I see some of the young guys doing this and I try to counsel them but…
Feb 27, 2009 at 1:11 pm
I always wear my seat belt. It’s a habit I developed when I got my license in 1969.
One nurse that I know described an accident victim coming into the ER one night as being in terrible shape. The safety harness left deep, painful bruises across his chest and he was KOd by the air bag, which broke his nose. Blood everywhere!
So what did you do for the poor man?
Patched him up and sent him home with a prescription for pain pills. He’ll be Ok.
So his family won’t be attending his funeral anytime soon, which is good (I would hope).
I’m sorry to hear about the officer who was killed. It’s good of you to spend time with the family.
Mar 1, 2009 at 4:37 am
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