Thread: My Spiderbox
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Old 04-20-2014, 02:59 PM
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SYCARMS SYCARMS is offline
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Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Senatobia, Mississippi
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I personally would go with the 5 point belts. The difference is if you roll over the 5th point will keep your head from slamming the ground for they hold you down in the seat. But now you say I wear a helmet. The helmet protects the head but not the crushing of vertebrae. I'm a strong advocate of safety and feel that I can spend my money on safety equipment that possibly will never come into play, but I can always make more money whereas if I don't invest or invest as cheaply as possible to save money and it becomes a necessity the hospital bills will more then absorb the money saved with or without insurance and if one of those freak accidents happen leaving me disabled I may not be able to earn any more money. I have 5 point belts in every one of my buggies and they are DOT or SNELL rated which means more money just as my helmets are. Like I said I can always make more money but can't make new body parts. Well now you say I'm not going very fast so I don't have to spend that kind of money the cheap belts and helmet will be fine . Go to Youtube and search Polish Rollover.
Four years ago @ the Buggy Bash in Missouri. Vehicle 2006 Blade 250 XT, 4 point belts click latch. Speed under 15mph. When leaving for our drive we were running late and I had a seat belt problem so I was going to leave without the belt latching. My 15 year old son at the time held up the operation stating that we had to fix the belt first which did not make some happy since we were already 1 + hours late. They waited and I got it to work. While on the trail we had to detour around a fallen large bolder which was in the trail. As I went around the boulder my wider buggy struck a stump which caused the steering wheel to bump steer which I thought broke my thumb.(never wrap thumbs around wheel). My arm flew out of the buggy as the right side went up an incline causing the buggy to flip over on its left side. I was able to get my arm back in the buggy before flipping (I now have arm restraints in all by buggies). The previous 2 years 2 people received broken arms at the same location one was fairly minor compared to the other since she received compound breaks and a crushed elbow, which required several operations. When all was done my son 200+ pounds was lying on top of my right side which caused my head to slam the boulder thus cracking my DOT approved helmet and compressing the inner liner very thin. Neither of us were hurt except for I having a headache a few hours later. We found that my sons stock click type belt unclicked for some reason causing his whole weight to force my head into the boulder much harder than if he would have still been buckled. It was one of those things we were able to cut up about later in the camp. Look at the video, we were under 15mph when this all happened. What if I did not fix my belt or went without a helmet or got my arm back inside. Accidents happen in the freakiest ways and people get killed and maimed in the freakiest ways. When I go back and think about how that incident could have turned out then reflect on the times I topped speeds of 30mph as high as 50mph it scares me. I now use only SNELL rated helmets which may be a bit overkill since my DOT rated helmet done what it was suppose to do, but the seatbelts will be of top quality usually costing 130.00 per belt and now most definitely arm restraints. It all comes down to what value you put on your body and life. Me, I had a non traumatic experience to where other than a headache I was unharmed using the minimum protection at under 15mph and my Son was fine. The 2 of us accessed what we think we are worth and have concluded that we could never spend too much for safety equipment, for since I am not disabled I can always make more money for the other things I want to do in life.
The main message here is always wear at least a DOT approved helmet, quality seat belts and arm restraints. You may go through life never needing them but all it takes is one time to spoil the whole rest of your life.
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