EDITOR, The Tribune.

I was driving (speeding) along Milo Butler Highway several years ago before the roundabout was constructed. There was a junction there with a traffic light. I was on the south side of the light heading north.

I overtook some cars, passed the red light, and there was a car travelling south coming toward me. I tried to get back in my lane in time, but I clipped the front bumper of the car in front of me.

Since I was speeding, the car flipped over several times, I lost consciousness and somehow landed on the outside of the car several feet away. An ambulance was called, and I was taken to the hospital.

When I recuperated, I had a look at my car, and I came to the conclusion that had I been trapped in that car because of a seatbelt, I would have been hurt more severely than I was, or worse, dead! So don’t say seatbelts save lives; sometimes they cause deaths. But that type of information is never reported.

As a matter of fact, you’ll notice that when there is a fatal accident with the driver of a vehicle, and the person was wearing a seatbelt, the news reporter reporting the accident, says it was a fatality, but never says “…and he was wearing a seatbelt”. They only say “…and he was not wearing a seatbelt” when the accident was fatal and the person was not wearing a seatbelt. It’s almost like a conspiracy.

Besides being potentially fatal, seatbelts are a gargantuan inconvenience. Because of what I do, I have to get in and out of a car like 35 to 40 times a day; each time fastening my seatbelt. Sometimes I forget and I stop in middle of traffic to put it on. Ridiculous!

And so, I am hoping that the powers that be are listening so that they could give serious consideration to repealing this seatbelt law because $300 is a lot of money that the government is requiring if you don’t do something that could kill ya!

MARVIN G LIGHTBOURN

Nassau,

June 22, 2013.