This was posted yesterday on one of the hockey boards I frequent. I have one question... WHY would a person go through the trouble of installing a FAKE seat belt in his car, instead of just wearing the REAL ONE? Now this poor guy's a Darwin Award candidate, when he might still be here if he'd just obeyed the darned seat belt laws.

Fake seat belt to fool police causes death of New Zealand driver
The Associated Press
Published: February 22, 2008

WELLINGTON, New Zealand: A New Zealand driver who used a fake car seat belt to fool police was killed when it failed him in a head-on crash, local media reported Saturday.

Ivan Segedin refused to wear a seat belt while driving and had been fined 32 times in the past five years for not wearing one, a coroner's court heard Friday.

Segedin, 39, died in a crash on July 22 last year from multiple injuries when his car crossed the road and collided head-on with an oncoming vehicle on North Island, coroner Carla na Nagara said.

"Ultimately Mr. Segedin's actions in driving without a seat belt have cost him his life in an accident that he may well have survived had he worn one," the New Plymouth Daily News quoted her saying.

Though his car was fitted with seat belts, an extra belt with a long strap had been knotted above the seat belt on the driver's side, providing a belt to simply sit over the driver's shoulder, Nagara said.

This created the illusion to a passing motorist or police officer that a seat belt was being worn when it was not.

Segedin's fatal injuries were caused when he was thrown forward on to the steering wheel in a low-impact crash. No blame or responsibility for the crash rested on the other driver, Nagara noted.