* belly-aching carefullness

...
With regards to this article:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/south_east/7020936.stm

The summary and main points of it for me are:
"An art student who fears she was almost killed by her belly button stud in a car accident has warned about the potential dangers of body piercings. Jessica Collins' seatbelt forced the stud through her stomach almost to her spine in the crash in Munich. "

"...The lap belt has pulled so tightly that the front part of her waist was pushed up against her spine... The doctor... was fascinated from a medical point of view. He'd never seen anything like it before."

""It was a freak accident. I can't say I've ever heard of anything like this before, but for a decorative bit of jewellery, it's not worth the risk." "

For me, the key words here are FREAK ACCIDENT!!!
They admit themselves that the doctor had never seen anything like before, and I'll bet very few of us have ever seen or heard or thought about it happening before now.

I'd even go so far as to say that if it really was a real risk or if it did happen on a regular basis that it would be making the news more often, and we’d all have heard about someone who knows someone who totally had it happen to them…
AND
It would be one of those parental urban legend type warnings that are doled out as part of disapproval, along the lines of "you'll catch cold" and "you’ll get hurt” and “you’ll take someone’s eye out” and “you'll go blind"...

So I guess that if we are using the possibility of a freak accident as a basis for never doing stuff, just in case…

Then…

* Steve Irwin's freak accidental death means we can never swim in the ocean again, just in case...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/5311298.stm

* All drills should be banned, just in case... http://www.snopes.com/horrors/techno/drillbit.asp

* Fire hydrants should be removed from the streets, just in case...
http://www.snopes.com/horrors/freakish/hydrant.asp

* Molasses and beer should be banned, just in case...
http://www.snopes.com/horrors/freakish/molasses.asp
And
http://www.snopes.com/horrors/freakish/beer.asp

* Playing cards should be banned, just in case...
http://www.snopes.com/horrors/freakish/kogut.asp

* Laughing should be banned, just in case
http://www.snopes.com/horrors/freakish/laughing.asp

OK, so I’m taking it to extremes, but you get the point: you can take all the care in the world, but you just can’t legislate against plain old bad luck (you know, special circumstances and being in the right or wrong time and place).

I just can’t help but think that, yes, this girl’s intentions were basically good (publicising an unknown or little known risk)
But
It is such a REMOTE risk that other, more serious risks associated with piercing could be getting ignored:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/1748579.stm

I’m pretty sure that “you might be in a car crash where your belly piercing gets pushed into your stomach like a bullet” is going to be pretty far down any list of possible piercing problems…