Seat Belt Safety: Can Pouches Survive Auto Accidents?

Has anyone been in an automobile accident where the seat belt grabbed and held you right on top of your pouch? Did the pouch explode? That's my fear - that I will survive the accident but me and everyone in the car will be covered with s***t. I know that the hard plastic stoma covers are designed to protect against stoma damage, but do they also prevent the pouch from exploding?

Hi Westie, I have not been in an accident, but I think I would rather be covered in poo than fly through a windshield. I live in a snowy area and recently there was a bad accident due to weather. Two people in a car that was hit head-on were ejected because of not wearing a seat belt.

Westie,

I would think that in an accident, the presence of fecal discharge in the car and on people would be the least of one's concern. I would imagine further that depending on the severity of the accident, fecal debris would not necessarily be from a person with an ostomy. I hope you and everyone else on this site never become an accident victim.

X_

Helo westie-lover.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this one. I find  the things that people become afraid of quite fascinating as statistics indicate that most of them will never happen or are very unlikely to occur.

I agree with your other respondees in that it will be the least of your worries if such an accident did happen and many people without stomas can be incontinent at times of severe emotional stress.  

However, if it really bothered me, I would make sure that the lower strap of the seat belt was positioned underneath the stoma whilst I was in the vehicle.

Also, I have seen a different type of harness on 'concept' cars where they have used the sort of safety devices that are nomally seen on roller coaster rides. Personally, I can envisage more problems with this approach than they solve but the idea of designing a seatbelt that goes over both shoulders and either staight down like racksack straps or in a postion that crosses the chest rather than spanning the waist would probably resolve the problem that you state.

I do not think it would be too difficult to rig up such an arrangement using a racksack to an existing seatbelt but I'm not sure if it would pass all the safety regulations. Maybe an idea to put to the manufacturers of such things? Aftter all. the flimsy portable seat that my grandchildren use is only held in by the seatbelt so why not a rucksack?  

Best wishes

Bill

Your seatbelt needs to ride below the connection of the bag and it should not pop. Why would you care though -- if you live through it that is what you need! Also, it would most likely pop a seal and ooze which is controllable.

I went for about a year without the seat belt until I was well healed and other internal issues were safe, but when on the highway I used a pillow under the belt. Now it is a non-issue.

Putting it in perspective, I think a bag of poo oozing is a lot less scary than a pint of blood or severed body parts!

Oh wow, Westie-lover, consider yourself lucky!

Twice I've been in the car and had my pouch explode for no reason whatsoever!

Once I was lying down in the back of the van after a chemo treatment, sound asleep. Hubby thought that they must have fertilized the farmland extremely heavily! By the time I woke up, I had been rolling in poo for some time. It was EVERYWHERE.

The reason I am concerned is that the odds are that everyone involved in the crash would have at least some cuts and abrasions. With poo everywhere, it becomes a bio-hazard, the emergency responders have to suit up like Russians at Chernobyl, and the scene becomes much more difficult for everyone. Normally a few cuts and abrasions are nothing to worry about but if they are infected, everyone has to go to the hospital to be checked out.

Howdy Westie....Hasn't happened to me and hope it never does but in my book it is the least of my worries at the time for sure, as many nonmates piss and sh@@ themselves in same situations and less.... I worry about a blowout in public more than a car full of !!!!