The Omnipotent Seat Belt

We're all well aware, via incessant promotion and big brother concern, that seat belts have brought people back from the dead and turned water into wine. But could a seat belt really have helped in the situation where a woman went off an exit ramp at high speed, crashing into first a light pole, then a tree, causing the car to burst into intense flame?

This Star Tribune article today quotes Lt. Mark Peterson of the State Patrol, "we might not ever know if there was alcohol [involved] or if she was wearing a seat belt."

The problem, as stated in the article, was that rescuers were unable to get the woman OUT of the car. Had she not been wearing a seat belt -- and we may never know, as stated -- she may have been thrown clear of the car and escaped with her life and mere injuries, however severe.