As someone who has been on the receiving end of just such a doos, I can advise that in the event of a side impact, your seatbelt is worth very little if it's a hit on your side (as long as the vehicle doesn't roll, I guess).
In my case the guy ran a red light, unfortunately for him with a camera trap on it. Speed was calculated at 93 kmph and he went through 5.2 seconds after the red light.
There were a few things that saved my ass that day:
- The centre point of his impact on my vehicle was only marginally back of my front wheels, so most of the energy was dissipated in a spin when it came to my vehicle. If it was an impact on the driver's door or centre doorpost, I'm not sure I'd be here to tell this tale.
- I was in a Jetta 3 and he was in one of those early Hyundai hatch things I think (I forget the model name right now), and there's no doubt - weight matters at times like these.
- Blind luck. And I do mean blind luck (I was struck on the driver's side and the Landrover on the right of me obscured the view. The occupants were great witnesses though).
I got lucky - just ended up with a pretty badly bruised foot really.
The driver of the other vehicle was less fortunate - apart from heavy bruising from his seatbelt, he also suffered amnesia and couldn't recall what happened (seems a seatbelt doesn't help much on that front either).
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