Car in fatal N.S. accident did not have seatbelts

[Rob]

Car in fatal N.S. accident did not have seatbelts

October 9, 2007
GlobeandMail.com

Elmsdale, Nova Scotia. -- A 54-year-old man who was killed while driving his 1963 Chevrolet Corvette Sunday night near Halifax wasn't wearing a seatbelt because his car didn't have any.

An RCMP spokesman said with cars of a certain vintage, that's perfectly legal.

"They're antique vehicles and if there were not seatbelts installed in that vehicle by the factory, they don't have to install them," said Corporal Preston Levi.

The victim, a Halifax man whose name has not been released, was pronounced dead at the scene after he was thrown from his red Corvette. The car left Highway 102 near Elmsdale and landed on its roof at the side of the road.

The Corvette was originally thought to be a motorcycle because it was so severely damaged.

 

[JohnZ]

An RCMP spokesman said with cars of a certain vintage, that's perfectly legal.

"They're antique vehicles and if there were not seatbelts installed in that vehicle by the factory, they don't have to install them," said Corporal Preston Levi.

Another case of someone removing them; probably installed new carpets and didn't bother to re-install the belts. :eyerole

 

[Stemmer]

Well...I doubt it very much if seat belts would have helped. I saw on tv the wreckage. The car had rolled multiple times and landed on it's roof. The fiberglass was in shreds. The police at first reported it was a motorcycle wreck as the car was in that bad of shape....

 

[Rob]

Crash victim remembered

ROBYN YOUNG

It's been several days since those closest to Liam David Currie learned the 54-year-old had died when he was thrown from his 1963 Corvette on Highway 102.

But for his best friend Dave Wilcox, the disbelief is still palpable, and sleep is elusive.

"We aren't back to normal here. It's quite a loss. It's hard to realize the shock of it all," he said.

Wilcox and Currie first met through their wives more than 30 years ago. They were close enough for Wilcox and his wife Marilyn to choose the Curries as one of their children's godparents, and for Currie's wife Betty to call them as soon as she heard about the accident on Sunday night.

"We went right in, and the police were there," he said.

Inviting Currie's wife to stay with them in Fall River, he says, was a no-brainer.

"Everybody comes together for support in times like this. We've known them for so long ... They are part of the family, more or less," he said.

Wilcox remembered his friend as an entrepreneur who enjoyed tennis, yoga and fishing. Most recently, the Curries operated a property-management company.

"He was a guy that was very active. Whatever he got in, he did well at," he said.

Vintage cars were a fairly new hobby, Wilcox said. Currie was out for a casual drive when the accident happened, he said.

Although he's tried to piece together what may have gone wrong, he has been unable to figure it out.

According to Blair Moland of Moland Corvettes in Bridgewater, the crash could have been the result of any number of factors.

"It could've been something broke on the car, it very well could have been," he said.

"But it could have been something as simple as a hot coffee spilled on his lap."

RCMP are still investigating the cause of the accident, which resulted in the car being flipped onto its roof.

Debbie Palmer, secretary of the Corvette Club of Nova Scotia, said she's concerned about safety when it comes to vintage vehicles, which don't have to follow the same safety-inspection rules as other cars.

"If you put antique plates on your car, your car has to be safety inspected at the time and the place they're installed, and that's it," she said.

"You're not required to have a safety inspection after that."

Palmer has avoided getting such plates for her own Corvette for just that reason.

She'd rather her car goes through the annual inspection and is safe for the road, she said.

Although RCMP said Monday that cars of a certain vintage built without seatbelts are not required to have them, Palmer said the installation of seatbelts in Corvettes began in 1958.

Any car built after that time, she said, should have been equipped with seatbelts.

She said the owner of the car may have chosen to have the belts removed or may have been in the process of having them restored.

"Maybe they were removed because they weren't working," she said.

Moland said the tragedy was a shock to the classic car community and probably had nothing to do with the safety of the car.

"Them cars are built strong," he said.

"They can take an awful beating."

Memorial services will be held on Friday at Snows Funeral Home in Halifax.

ryoung@hfxnews.ca