Can a belly button ring travel through a person like a bullet?

[numbersnovice]

My 15 y/o daughter is in driver's ed. Her teacher passed on some information as fact that seems more like an urban legend. He told the class that an inexperienced driver got into a bad car wreck, and the sudden loss of speed caused her belly button ring to penetrate her entire midsection like she'd been shot by a bullet. It's hard for me to get my daughter to wear her seatbelt consistently because it irritates her belly piercing, so maybe this will scare her into being a safe driver, lol.

I'd really like to know if this story is physically possible, though, just for my own edification.

 

[PeroK]

It's true, apparently:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/south_east/7020936.stm

 

[Frabjous]

Notice that the seatbelt caused the penetration. Not the lesson you want to send.

 

[Rive]

the sudden loss of speed

To be correct, it was not exactly the deceleration, but the pressure of the safety belt.
Safety belts can do some really nasty job. Just google up 'safety belt bruise'.
On the other hand: without those safety belts many of those pictures would have been taken from dead people.

 

[hutchphd]

I have never understood the concept of dangling shiny objects from your body like a Christmas tree. It just seems bizarre to me (I will add it to my very long list of human foibles !)
Incidentally, I was in a car accident as a young man where there were no seat belts in the car. Two of the four occupants died. Seat belts would almost certainly have saved my friends. Never ever ride without them.

 

[DaveC426913]

I have never understood the concept...

That is - in itself - partly the point. If everyone understood X, then X wouldn't be avant garde.

 

[numbersnovice]

It's true, apparently:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/south_east/7020936.stm

OMG And the seatbelt was the culprit. Great... Thank you for the find. It seems to be a freak, one-off occurrence.

 

[Borg]

Cars can still be really dangerous places if you try hard enough.

https://memestatic.fjcdn.com/pictures/Clever+hippopotamus_52e405_8559146.jpg

 

[Vanadium 50]

Tullock's spike, anyone?

 

[Borg]

Tullock's spike, anyone?

 

[Tom.G]

Here in the US, lap belts go across the hips, NOT the abdomen. One wonders about the placement of a belt across the softest area of the body...

Note that the news article is 15 years old! Perhaps this occurred before their were standards in effect.

Last Updated: Monday, 1 October 2007, 06:11 GMT 07:11 UK

Belly stud 'almost killed teen'

 

[phinds]

Here in the US, lap belts go across the hips, NOT the abdomen

I don't think so. Near as I can recall, it's been decades since I was in a car that had only a lap belt. Modern cars have a combination lap/chest belt and the "chest" belt goes across the abdomen.

 

[DaveC426913]

I don't think so. Near as I can recall, it's been decades since I was in a car that had only a lap belt. Modern cars have a combination lap/chest belt and the "chest" belt goes across the abdomen.

I'm with Tom G on this.

The lap belt goes across the hips, snugly.
The shoulder belt holds back the shoulder.

A modern 3-point seatbelt is designed not to compress the internal organs when worn properly."... the three-point belt spreads out the energy of the moving body over the chest, pelvis, and shoulders."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seat_belt#Three-point" A 3-point seat belt, also called a lap/shoulder belt, includes a lap belt and a shoulder belt and has three attachment points, one near each hip and one over a shoulder."
https://lofrano.com/how-do-seat-belts-keep-us-safe-in-a-collision/#:~:text=Today's seat belts are three,in one area, minimizing injury.

Proper positioning of shoulder and lap belts with respect to skeletal anatomy. (B) Locations of seat belt signs are projected where loads optimally are distributed (left panel, shadowing.
(i.e.: across hips and ribcage, not across abdomen)
https://www.jem-journal.com/article/S0736-4679(19)30050-2/fulltext

 

[russ_watters]

All that's true by design/theory Dave, but the hip/lap part is problematic. Even under the best of conditions it has to compress the soft tissue of the lower abdomen and it's easy for it to ride up and miss the hip bones.

Separate issue to point out: some but not all vehicles have an adjustable shoulder harness height, and if they don't and you aren't tall it can dig into your neck instead of your shoulder.

 

[phinds]

All that's true by design/theory Dave, but the hip/lap part is problematic. Even under the best of conditions it has to compress the soft tissue of the lower abdomen and it's easy for it to ride up and miss the hip bones.

 

[DaveC426913]

All that's true by design/theory Dave, but the hip/lap part is problematic. Even under the best of conditions it has to compress the soft tissue of the lower abdomen and it's easy for it to ride up and miss the hip bones.

Absolutely. But that's a human error, not an engineering flaw.

*(Well, not really - any design that relies on humans to robotically always do the right thing is not designed well enough to protect humans.)

Seat belts are a losing battle for engineers. Humans don't want to use them, and will take every opportunity to defeat them or buy something else. How are you supped to design something that will be actively sabotaged by the very payload you're trying to protect?