VERY IMPORTANT. Please read!!!!

Today I witnessed a pretty awful wreck. On my way to work today I followed a older woman in a grand jeep cherokee. As we turned a pretty tight curve, her jeep took off, hit the chainlink fence in front of her, bounced off of it to the left, bounced again in the mud, and ran nose-first into the telephone pole.

She was going about 50, and the roads were wet. I pulled right over, called 911 on my cell phone, told the lady where I was, and then went up to the car to see if the lady was okay. She wasn't. She was only half coherent and was holding her bleeding head. Apparently her head had hit her drivers side window so hard it had busted the window completely out. Her arm was broken and she had a mild concussion. I made her stay where she was and within five minutes, EMS was on the scene. The lady was not wearing her seatbelt, and her cruise control was on.

Several months ago I got one of those forwarding emails about the dangers of driving with your cruise control on in the rain. It's extremely dangerous.

Now that I've seen what can happen first hand, I wanted to pass this along.

****PLEASE DO NOT DRIVE ON WET PAVEMENT WITH YOUR CRUISE CONTROL ON*******

It makes the road like ice. The police said that was probably the cause of it and I dont doubt it. She said the cruise wouldn't turn off and she could no longer control her car.

So, think about it before you put your cruise control on when it's raining or while the pavement is wet. It's very dangerous.


Have a nice day.

/emergency warning.

yeah... i learned that in driver's ed in high school...

thanks for the warning.

hope you are okay too.. that is a scary situation.

Thank you for being an adult and stopping to help.

Edit to add- I'm sincere, that's not meant sarcasticly or anything. Half of the people out there would keep driving.

[Edited on Nov 16, 2004 by Dan76]

Heh. Goes to show how much I pay attention. Especially in drivers ed in HS. Cuz I don't remember that at all.

And I'm fine. It's been a weird day because I keep seeing people almost get into wrecks all day. Drives me nutters.

*edit to say... I would hope any one of us would do the same thing and do all we can to help. And, yeah, seatbelt wise....I didn't see it on her. though it may have knocked it loose when she hit the side of her jeep on the fence. Who knows.

[Edited on Nov 16, 2004 by Dejajeva]

It's 2004 and people still don't wear their fucking seatbelts?

Yeah, elderly people who never did in the first place. Old dogs, new tricks and what not.

Thanks for the tip.

oh jeez...eek.
i had never heard that about cruise control...though my car doesn't have it anyway.


SEATBELTS, people!!!

I watched a guy go off the highway, crash through the barrier and down to the access road right in front of us. Not wearing his seatbelt, and with the cruise control on apparently. Pretty freaking gruesome. The poor guy died while we tried to help him. His body was (no kidding) 30 yards from where the car landed. I had nightmares for months.

I wish this was the case, but it's not. A friend of mine had a son who was in a horrific accident where one of the kids was killed - none of them were wearing seatbelts.

Anyone remember the lawsuit against GM for not having stronger roofs, because someones kid was thrown out and killed? Yup, no seatbelt. Yeah, it's the roof's fault. Try a seatbelt, deadass.

If I dont wear a seatbelt I feel like I'm just going to fly out of the car. I HAVE to wear a seatbelt.

I always wear my seatbelt too.

Wow, I never knew that about the cruise control, thanks.

I don't think anybody should use drive control ever. If you are really an aware and awake driver, you should just drive. If not, you shouldn't be driving. Don't be lazy. And just use your safety belt. It's no big deal, just put it on. It actually works.

Thanks for sharing Dejajeva, and thanks for being awesome and helping that woman.

my driver's ed teacher's name was rex easly. no joke. made reader's digest.

And once, i knew these kids in school. and for real! their mom named them lemon and orange jello.

Seat belts are a definite must....but....There was a kid in my town who flipped his car....the car was upside down but he was fine....until the car caught fire. He ended up burning alive cause he couldn't get his seat belt off.

hmmm....Always have a knife handy!

Yeah, you'd be suprised how many people still don't wear their seatbelts. I'm a Paramedic and I see this everyday. I would say at least 50% of the wrecks I am called to have serious injuries as a result of not wearing their seatbelts. Oh, and I love the excuse "I thought that's what my airbags were for?!?!" I had a guy hit a telephone pole at about 30mph the other night and ended up with severe heard trauma and a traumatic brain injury because he thought his airbag would save him. It saved him from going through the widshield and into the pole, but it re-directed his head into the roof supports over the windshield. Might have saved his life, but what kind of life is he going to have now?

Oh, and about stopping to help. Yeah, I NEVER stop at the scene of accidents to help when I'm not working. I usually do "the EMS wave." I'll stop and call 911, etc., but I would never aproach a vehicle after a collision. Working in this industry I've seen all of the dangerous things that can happen when you're just trying to help (undeployed airbags suddenly deploying as you are reaching/crawling into the car to help, explosions, shattering glass, etc.), people get killed that way, besides what good will I actually do for someone if I don't have all of my paramedic tools and safety equiptment? None. All you can or should do is stop and call 911. Remember kids, most people honored as heroes are dead.

[Edited on Nov 16, 2004 by The_Alchemist]

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It's a law in Michigan now. You can get a ticket if a cop sees you aren't wearing yours. It used to be that they could only ticket you if they'd pulled you over for something else, but now they can pull you over and write a ticket if you aren't wearing your seat belt.

I can't imagine NOT wearing mine. I hate the feeling I have when it isn't on. It's so automatic now that I rarely remember even putting it on.

The cruise control thing seems so elementary to me. You should never, ever use it during rain/snow, because you aren't in control of your car's speed or traction at that point. I had no idea people actually did that. Good lord.

The only time I put mine on is when it's dry weather and there aren't many cars on the freeway. It helps stop foot cramps caused by holding the accelerator in the same position for three hours.

my mom sent me this in one of her many email forwards.


...I don't have cruise control, mom.

I agree. That's a commendable thing.

I always wear a seat belt. Ever since I saw one of those Emergency Room shows on t.v. where there were 4 teenagers in a car that flipped. 3 who weren't wearing their seat belts were in intensive care very close to dying. The one who was wearing his seat belt walked away with a scratch on his thigh. That's enough proof for me.

[Edited on Nov 16, 2004 by BooMan]

[Edited on Nov 16, 2004 by BooMan]

one of the few times i forgot to put my seat belt on I got inot an accident. the guy slammed into my drivers door and spun my car around. the paramedic told my mother that if i had been wearing it i probaly wouldn't have lived. oh well. I try to remember to wear mine. the car I used to have had the shoulder straps that slid forward, when it would come back i would think to do the waist belt. unfortunately i don't think about it in cars that don't have that. I know it is irresponsible, but it doesn't happen often

my dad's good friend got in a real bad accident that way too, only it was winter and snowing. She's all messed up now and has to be on morphine all the time because she really got her back hurt.