Bad, Sad, News

[Bruce Reynolds # 18992]

Gday Densie,

Do I unfortunate accident, or the total combination of Lap and Sash?

Bruce,
The Tassie Devil(le),
60 CDV

[Bruce Reynolds # 18992]

Gday Densie,

I meant to say:

Do I understand that you were wearing only a sash belt when you had the unfortunate accident, or the total combination of Lap and Sash?

Bruce,
The Tassie Devil(le),
60 CDV

[Rob Gerace #16100]

Hi Denise,
  I think the pitbull argument is a little different than the seatbelt law, for one reason.  A pitbull has the potential to attack any person, including innocent people, and not just the owner.  The choice to or not to wear a seatbelt only affects that one person and no one else.  Thats what makes it different.  A pitbull is a liability to potentially anyone, where a seatbelt is only a liability to the person wearing/not wearing it.  

It happens quite often where the neighbor of a vicious dog owner is seriously injured or even killed (remember that case in CA a couple years ago?) by that persons dog.  Id be pretty pissed off if I was seriously injured or if someone I knew was killed by some morons dog.  

So, I dont think that a pitbull is a good comparison.  I do think that a gun is a better alternative.  At least you have control over it.  

By the way, if the seatbelt law bothers you so much, why dont you just not wear the seatbelt anyway?  I mean, laws dont stop anyone from doing anything.  You just have to accept the potential consequences of breaking a law.  If a $100 ticket is worth it for the freedom, then why not do what you want to do?  

Rob

[Randall McGrew CLC # 17963]

I would have to agree with Rob on this one, Densie.  Your best recourse is to get a medical waiver on using the shoulder harness.  Or, and I do not know if anyone has suggested this, have the shoulder restraint modified to your needs.  No idea on what to do there.  But if all else fails, just dont wear the damn thing.  I have a friend who hates them too.  He simply lets it dangle.  The chances of getting stopped for that infraction are small although the Click it or ticket program is in full force.

Until the law is changed to grandfather all vehicles, you are still better off selling the big dud and getting a well maintained car from the 60s or 50s if you are so lucky that either only have lap belts or no belts at all.

I dont know what your buy out would be, but I expect you should be able to sell a nice, low mileage Marquis for enough to pay off the loan.  Money is not my strong suit sadly.  I know my son could find you a car that would suit you nicely in the neighborhood of $4K.  

More generally though ...

I feel as you do.  There are simply too many laws that micro manage our lives, whether it is reasonable or not.  It is in our essential character as Americans to resist such control.  I know for a fact that the general opinion of the colonists in 1768 followed the same line concerning Englands demands.  Acceptance rather than resistance...it is the way things are, for God, King and Country.  But the people resisted, and eventually their resistance became revolt.  We have never been a people to stand the yoke of any kind for too long, whether it is for our own good or not.  Complacency is not a reality, it is a behavior we can choose, and it is one we can choose to reject.

Write your representatives and tell them how you feel.  Join organizations that seek to limit the power of government over your life.  It is your right.  Just because it has become unfashionable to resist, does not mean it is wrong.  The more someone tells you that you are betraying your country by resisting or voicing your honest opinion, the louder you should get.  That is fundimental to our national character and a great strength in our form of Democracy.  Remember our one slogan from the War for Independance....Dont Tread On Me!  

If you need my help in finding a cheaper, acceptable car...let me know and I can see what Jonathan can do.  He has helped me immeasurably. Just email me.  

PAX VOBIS CUM!

[densie]

> Do I unfortunate accident, or the total combination of Lap and Sash?

   Huh?

[densie]

Oh.

   I had the lap belt/shoulder belt combination on.  That was the only option in the truck, as in all newer cars, its all one belt.

   Im sure that most people remember the lap belts that the shoulder belts hooked into.  It was a little bit more trouble to hook up, but it gave you the option of not wearing the shoulder belt, and of tightening the lap belt down so that you didnt slide around in the seat.  I prefer that setup.

   An even "Better Idea", my Ford now has both the one-piece thing and a lap belt.  The driver can wear either one, or both.

-denise

[densie]

  Thanks.  My husband actually likes my new car, so maybe someday he will take it over and I can get what I want.  This weekend, he has to replace the blower motor in his Volvo, which involves tearing most of the dash apart.  He may not be too fond of Euro-engineering when he gets done with that job.

  Ive been looking at 1966 and older models lately, because theyre exempt from emissions testing, and some of them are very appealing.  I like the Cadillacs, the Chryslers, and the Buick Electra 225s.  One of the most important things around here is a reliable air conditioner, so I dont really want to go back into the 50s cars.  Ive bought many older cars with the hope that I could someday restore them to good condition, but I think that I would be better off buying one that someone else has already done the work on, or just one that was well-maintained.  Now that I think back on it, I cant remember ever owning such a car.  Its always been either newer cars or projects, and Ive had to cut way back on my projects lately.  $4k sounds reasonable, and I may spend even more to get something nice.  I paid $1300 for my hearse, but I have $6500 into it already, and the interior and paint and body work arent even finished.

  Getting money back out of a car, any car, after youve bought it is almost impossible.  If you buy a $25,000 car, you owe over 30,000 by the time they put the taxes, registration, and the first months interest on it.  A year later, maybe you only owe $25,000, but the car is worth substantially less than 20 by then.  A year after that, your car is worth $10k and you owe twice that much.  Ive seen cars like mine going for $13-18k on Ebay, and I still owe $24k on it.  Buying a new car was a very stupid mistake that I made, at a time when my mind and body were not right because of the auto accident.  I could have just kept driving the  truck...it was wearing out a tire, but you can buy many new tires for what you lose on a new car.

  I already have the medical waiver for the shoulder belt, but many people here have expressed that they would like for the government to force us all to wear shoulder belts, and governments tend not to care about an individuals situation.  Certainly, they have more authority than doctors.  Someone has to point out that more government is not the solution to preventing the bad things that happen to us.  Its more often the cause of them.

   As much as Im annoyed by people advocating the use of seat belts, at a time when I have been injured by them, thats just a problem for me.  Asking for more government "for your own good" is a problem for everyone.

-denise

[Randall McGrew CLC # 17963]

Densie, when you are ready to find that car, please let me know. If I can help I would like to.  The kind of car you are looking for should run around 8K but...scuttlebutt is that with the fuel prices many local old car owners will be getting out of the field.
I would expect a good selection this summer.  Admittedly a bad time to buy for the consumer looking to save money but still a good selection.

For instance, if your taste for PHFORD products has not died totally, there is a 1967 or 66 Lincoln sedan here in Longmont for sale on a small lot.  It is a light pea green with green interior...actually rather handsome.  I would not normally buy from a dealer of any kind.  It is only an example.  I have also seen many good CAdillacs suddenly appear like a 1959 series 62 5 window sedan for $2000.  It looked in presentable shape.  

The kind of deals Jonathan finds are rare but out there.  My 77 Eldorado is only one.  

One governmental controls...many people equate control/legislation with safety.  Security is a state of mind.  In a world where anything can happen statistically, one simply is not safe but the odds are against major catastrophies.   That does not mean they wont happen.  I am for less government intrusion, less legislation and more self responsibility on the part of citizens.  

Groups like the ACLU do every American a service in fighting for the rights of the accused, even if it is unpopular or even insane at the time.  Standing up for the anti-social and pariahs of society is never popular, but without them who would be there to do it?  The Judicial system is not equal and not fair, but it works.  Fairness is also another state of mind.  We strive for equality but rarely achieve it.  Is that any reason to stop striving for it?  I would rather sacrifice what little I had in the hope that we are all better than that.  But I am an admitted romantic.  

[Porter 21919]

Have killed people, if they were so great they would use them in Nascars. Obviously they have the best safety restraint system.

I think if the government really wants to take this auto safety subject seriously then they should mandate a race car type safety harness for all occupants.

The auto manufacturers are in business to make money, by and large they have great engineers that design reliable, dependable and safe cars in this day and age. The new cars have crumple zones front and rear, collapseable ateering columns, etc.

Bear in mind that many operators of automobiles are completely incompetent and probably shouldnt even be allowed to drive.

There will allows be accidents, they are unpreventable due to operator error.

Your best defense is yourself.

Porter

[Bruce Reynolds # 18992]

Porter,

Sorry, but you bring up an irrelevant matter here with mentioning NASCAR safety systems.

If those parameters were put into practice, then 95percent of people wouldnt even be allowed to sit in the passenger seat in any car.

By the time one climbs into a car, trying not to get their clean, neatly pressed clothes caught on a side intrusion bar, sits in their fixed, whap-around, body hugging seat, puts on their Full Harness seat belt (5 point minimum), adjusts their hair inside their Crash Helmet, then attaches their arm restraints, and helmet restraint, of course they dont need air bags.

Oh, yes, I also forgot to mention the years it takes to get a licence to actually be permitted to operate such a vehicle on a road with others of like mind.

The biggest problem with all forms of transport is that we dont take long enough to get to where we are going, and it only takes one idiot in the moving pack to start a chain reaction.

This chain reaction only ends when everyone concerned in an incident has either been buried after a long life of situation-altering pain and suffering, or was lucky enough not to be hurt, or put out financially because of someones moment of stupidity.

Now, lets get back to talking Cadillacs.

Bruce,
The Tassie Devil(le),
60 CDV

P.S.   Life is too short to worry so much.

[Porter 21919]

Well Bruce,

As usual you are correct. Some of us are just not big fans of the air bags. Nowadays many good late model cars get totaled by the insurance compnays due to the added expense of replacing the bags after a collision. It appears that they are here to stay, until they come up with a better saftey device.

I would imagine given a choice we would prefer a Nascar type safety restraint system in our car, that is for a serious driving environment granted. Perhaps people should take their driving more seriously.

Porter

[Bruce Reynolds # 18992]

Right on Porter,

EVERYONE should take their driving more seriously.

Driving a lethal weapon is a privelage, not a right.

And, people MUST be accountable for their actions.

An Accident is never an Accident.   It is a "Loss of concentration", a "Lapse of concentration", or just "plain stupidity".

(1)   Car loses brakes and crashes - "lack of maintenance".
(2)   Car fails to give way - "Cars dont do anything without the operator making decisions, albeit a wrong one".
(3)   Car runs Red Light - "driver fails to bring car to a stop".
(4)   Car runs off road - "Driver is operating out of his/her capabilities, or falls asleep at the wheel".
(5)   Car had a mind of its own - "If it is a design fault, then recall all of that model - but proper testing would have found and rectified the fault before being authorised to be used on public roads.

Bruce,
The Tassie Devil(le),
60 CDV

Now back to happier Cadillac things.

[Randall McGrew CLC # 17963]

I have been saying this for some time.  People today allow their cars to drive them rather than doing the driving themselves.  Its as though they are passengers to be entertained, and protected by the various passive restraint systems.  Its all nonsense.  I have spent years learning how to really drive, and proper methods for driving accurately as well as safely.  That includes defensive driving techniques, as well as precision driving techniques.

As a law officer, Bruce, you know what I am talking about.  I love to drive.  I love everything about it, always have.  I enjoy driving fast in an appropriate vehicle, one best suited for it, under the best conditions.  But normally, I drive along the rules of the road.  Its fun!!!  And its safe.  I cannot tell you how many people I have watched sailing down the road ablivious to whats around them because they are talking, on the phone or having a DVD flickering around them.  The thing I understand the least is why they speed?  Driving the speed limit I am forever being passed, flashed at and cursed when that is the best way to maintain control.  And the funny thing is, driving is a relaxing, enjoyable pursuit for me.  Go figure.    

I dont think I am being special or anything ... unless being prepared and educated is special.  Shoot, when growing up that was the Boy Scout motto.
But then those were the days when learning and intellectual curiousity were admired rather than reviled.

[Michael Stamps 19507]

... its the person that raised it.  Since pit bulls were brought up I wanted to give my two cents as a dog lover.  As some of you know I am a cable tech and as such visit many houses a year and run into many dogs.  I remember running into two pit bulls and being bitten twice.  Not by the pit bulls but by dogs that most people would consider "good" dogs.  The two pit bulls I meet licked me to death but since Im a dog person I didnt mind one bit.  

Stampie

[Bruce Reynolds # 18992]

Gday Stampie,

And Ill bet that the ones that bit you were excuses for lap warmers.

Bruce,
The Tassie Devil(le),
60 CDV

[Michael Stamps 19507]

Good guess ... I perfer to call them kick dogs just that I wasnt fast enough to kick them out of the way.

Stampie

[denise 20352]

   Actually, what amazes me is that a car can go around the block without colliding into another car.

"Car loses brakes and crashes", we count on little rubber seals to push hundreds or thousands of pounds of force through rubber hoses, to make semi-metallic things push against metal things, creating enough friction to heat an average-sized room or light every bong in South Dallas, hundreds of times a day.  Wow.

"Car fails to give way"...did the driver know what he was supposed to?  We have a new intersection near the mall here in Tucson where a left turn used to be.  Now, you come up on a median that divides the left lane and the two right lanes.  In the middle of the median is a split in the crosswalk where passengers can stop and wait in the middle of the road if they cant make the light and get all of the way across.  The two right lanes go straight.  The left lane goes straight if you go to the left of the median without going into the left turn lane.  If you want to turn left, you go to the left of the median and then into one of the two left turn lanes.  If youre turning left into the left lane, then you use the left left turn lane.  If youre turning left into the right lane, then you use the right left turn lane.   So suppose here you are in the left lane, and you want to go straight.  What do you do?  You dont have time to go back and read all of that again.  What some people do is, theyre in the left lane, they want to go straight, but it looks like their lane is going to be left turn only at the median.  So, they try to make a lane change to the right, until they get right up to the median, then they realize that they can still go straight in the left lane, so they try to cancel their lane change and go straight, and, run up onto the median.  Any passengers who might be waiting in the median are run down and killed.  Whose fault is it?  The sadistic, genocidal freak who designed the intersection, the idiotic pedestrian who stopped in the middle of it, or the confused driver?  I honestly cant decide.

"Car runs red light"...yes, thats a pretty stupid thing to do.  The car that I collided with recently went through a stop sign.  But, compare stopping at traffic signals to anything else that people do all day long, every day, and still manage to screw up?   How many people trip and fall, mispronounce words, make typing errors, etc. despite that they may actually be concentrating on what theyre doing?

"car runs off road"...what amazes me is that people do such a good job of keeping them on the road!  Older cars arent too difficult, but the newer cars are so touchy on the steering that a movement of a fraction of a degree of the steering wheel is enough to send them careening off of the road.  Even people who concentrate and pay attention have to sneeze sometimes, and not everybody pays attention.  And then all you have to keep you on most roads are some painted lines that you may or may not be able to see.  Maybe its dark, rainy, headlights arent adjusted correctly...

"Car had a mind of its own"...theyre designed that way now, arent they?

-denise

[denise 20352]

  I plugged the seat belt connector back in and the air bag light went out.  I finally got my service manual, and it turns out that the seat belt latch connector is not just a simple on/off switch. It has to be plugged in or the system goes flaky.

  The service manual also gave me the same procedure that you described for disabling the Belt Minder(tm), and I finally got it to work.  You have to do it kind of slowly.  Why they would put the wrong procedure in the owners manual, I dont know.  Maybe they really dont want you disabling it.

  After reading about the way that the seat belt tensioners and everything work, I decided to leave it all the way it was originally, except that I have the option of putting on just a lap belt.  I moved the one for the center over to the drivers seat.

  I may have to disable the air bag, though.  Its impossible to enjoy driving a car when youre constantly watching where you put your hands for fear that an air bag is going to explode and blow them off.  Its something that I just cant get comfortable with...I would have an easier time wearing the shoulder belt.

-denise