In this case, it sounds as if the seat belt might have trapped the driver for the whole tumble down the cliff. I instinctively buckle up, even if I'm just rearranging cars in my (flat) driveway. It's easier to make and abide by good habits.
I'm definitely an advocate for seatbelts, but 400 ft of that Sport slamming into the ground almost guarantees compression fractures, and a lot of them. Life-ending spinal fractures are a real probability. It's impossible to say she would have been better off, just because the passenger compartment held up. Hell, getting tossed (out of the vehicle) once, is probably far better than going through four hundred feet of spin cycle, while bouncing down down a cliff. That said, I would have been weating my seatbelt, out of habit.
Is an engine designed to break loose in an accident? Seems like a flaw not a feature
Except you don't know at what point she was tossed out at and how far she fell once she was tossed out.
This is true. Regardless, sraying in the vehicle would have almost certainly resulted in many broken bones, including compression fractures of the spine. We do know she survived long enough to be treated. That may not have been the case, if her spine was crushed by repeated impacts, rolling down that mountain. Like I said, I am a proponent for always wearing a seatbelt. I also know that surviving a 400ft roll off a cliff/down a mountain is less than likely, even though the passenger compartment held up as well as this one did.
I also think the explosion of youtube videos of people wheeling gives people a false sense of their ability. I'm caught myself doing this with a number of subjects. Watching experienced people makes it look easy. Compounding that is that video doesn't really do a good job of showing the reality of some of these trails. Obstacles look small on video and grades don't look as steep.
