Is it me or has anybody else noticed that more and more people are not wearing seat belts in the front? It's not fair on those who arrive at the scene of an accident to find somebody needlessly hurt.
Is there anybody on here who will honestly admit to regularly not wearing a seat belt and their reason why not, from the following or another reason:
1. It's only a short journey (fact: you're most likely to have an accident within 5 miles of your home)
2. It's cool not to wear one
3. It's uncomfortable
4. It's easy to forget
5. The fine is only £50 and you're unlikely to get caught
6. It takes time that I haven't got
7. The car has airbags

ISTR my brother doesn't like wearing them as they reputedly cause nasty injuries twisting the chest.

Obviously he thinks flying through the windscreen is safer :rolleyes:


Edit - Mike, 29 posts in 3.5 years????

[Edited by Brendan Hughes - 4/4/2003 1:46:55 PM]

I usually put mine on, been caught once without it :rolleyes:

Sometimes i forget, sometimes i dont think its worth it cos i am going approx 1 mile. Having said that, u can bet your life, evertime i dont put it on there is a fed car coming the other way.
I have mastered the art of applying my seat belt without looking suspicious for those times i forget :D

I would not obviously admit to refraining to wear a seat belt, but have had 2 very big acidents in my lifetime.

Accident 1 -

Aged 17, driving a XR3i from Caversham in Reading to Henley, along a well know dangerous road.

The car came off the road, and I was not wearing a seat belt, came out through the front windscreen and fractured my skull, and had a blood clot removed as the hospital did not check me out quick enough.

Now that sounds like I should have wore a seat belt, but both the police and doctors said to me that the impact of the car against the tree would have caused permanent damage to my legs and back should I have have been wearing my seat belt, and I would have been cripled for life.

The other incident was driving along the M4 in a Nissan Skyline, and a car hit us and spun us several times along the side reservation.

My wife wore her seat belt, and I did not. I have no injuries, but my wife had whiplash and long term pains in the side of her body. Now that may be conincindental, but fact.

Now I would always say most times it is safer to wear a seatbelt, but you can appreciate that some of us may have a good reason not to have been wearing one.

This does annoy me:
Because every journey involves two five mile sections. If your average journey distance is small then a high proportion of your driving will be near home, and a higher proportion of your accidents.

I bet if you checked the stats you're equally likely to have an accident within 5 miles of your destination. Does this mean that I can drive like a loony without risk as long as I am not within 5 miles of my home or my destination?

Plus motorways are the safest roads and most journeys involve a few dangerous miles followed by many safer miles on the motorway, lies, damn lies, and statistics [img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img]

Mate's seatbelt has just broke his Chest Bone/Sternum in a low speed crash!

Dunno why less people are wearing belts. Tis silly in my eyes, I wear a belt regardless of whether I'm driving, passenger (be it front or rear).

Was drummed into me at early age by my Dad to wear a belt in the back, and obviously did not need a mention to do it in the front.

I've been in the car with one of the directors who got in and wondered why we were not going anywhere, when I pointed out it was because he had not put his belt on he laughed and said, don't be so silly! get going. I said "no" and told him he had a choice, belt up or walk! as we were in Birmingham at the time, he did the sensible thing.

I crashed my first Scooby on the M20 a few months ago. A bird came walking into the middle of the lane and I swerved to avoid it. I was going at 70 (ish) and the car spun right round and hit the central barrier and ended up facing the wrong way. Everyone in the car was all right - no scratches or anything and we were all wearing seatbelts. Make your own mind up. And heres a question for you - who was at fault - the bird, the driver or the car. I blame the bird. My insurance company didn't. And yes the bird just flew away afterwards.

makes me laugh at all the children I see jumping around in cars with no belts on............. Great parents.....

Yep i agree with that.

I think kids should ALWAYS be strapped in. They dont realise the dangers of an accident, its the parents responsibilty to make sure they are safe.
Still amazes me how many really young kids, maybe 4 or 5 years old are allowed to wander the streets without an adult :rolleyes:

i rolled a golf end to end. all wheels smashed and roof stuffed. me and my passenger were wearing belts. both got out with zero injury.

the seats were wrenched sideways almost off the floor pinnings at the force of the roll with us in the seats.

i shudder to think what state we would have been in without belts.

Interesting comments so far - but I will always belt up, even for 200 yards.

My view is that people are getting lazy - some in fact haven't got time to put their seat belt on because they're too busy on the phone as well as driving!

There should be some government stats on the safety of seatbelts compared to not wearing one. Whilst I can't be arsed to look, I expect it shows you are less likely to be killed if you wear one.

However, now that most cars have airbags (at least in the front) I would be really interested to know what the relative fatalities are when you compare belt wearing and airbag deployment with not belt wearing and airbag deployment.

I just wish some people could see some of the sights we have to see when people don't wear their belts in accidents. A lot of these people are not able to post in forums like this.

They're dead.

I don't know about anyone else but when I don't wear a seatbelt in a car (driving or passenger) it just doesn't feel right :S So the first thing I always do is put a seatbelt on.

Almost exactly a year ago 2 lads I knew were killed when the car they were in rolled and they weren't wearing seatbelts. I heard it took the emergency services over an hour to find one of the bodies because it had been thrown so far from the car when it was rolling :( I've also heard that the crash investigators reckoned they'd both have almost certainly survived if they'd been wearing their belts :( One of the lads had just become a father for the frst time too :(

Gareth

I blame the movies. How often can you recall heroes and heroins jumping into their cars and putting on their seatbelts before giving chase or making a getaway?

:)

Seatbelt save lives. So I put mine on all the time.

HOWEVER, Once I negleted to put on my seat belt (in the passenger seat of a Landrover Defender TD5). We were on the motorway, and for whatever reason the landie rolled over onto the passengerside A pillar. I was pushed into the footwell, which is just as well beause the roof had been collapsed to 2ft below the height of where my head would have been if held in the seat by a belt. I'll dig out the photos sometime...

When plod turned up they had been told there was a fatality (me.. :( ), so had the ambulance crew. I was told by the sgt. attending that I should have been dead, and that in theory he could do me for not wearing the seat belt, but under the circumstances let me off. I was in shock and bleeding everywhere, you know, the really thick stuff :D There were 13 miles of tailbacks on the M25 that day :D

Funniest thing was the first woman I came across after climbing out... she was running towards me screaming! I had to tell her to calm down.

Spookiest thing was waiting there upside down for an artic to come plowing into the back of us....

The Police could make a fortune at every traffic light here in N.London. .. £50.00 on the spot fine for every passenger not wearing a belt. Driver pays for all children. Adults pay their own fine.

Further to my last post, the question seems to be is it safer to wear seatbelts of not. Some have posted examples where not to wear may have saved them.

All I can say is this, would Richard Burns or Michael Schumacher be alive or dead today if they did not wear seatbelts?

I think they would be dead.

I do wear them all the time. I was just lucky....

Darwinism in action :p

Ratman
(always belted-up)

Mike

I dont usually wear mine, only when seeing a copper

But a few many moons ago I had a friend who was involved in a serious accident, had his seat belt on....

Car caught fire and well seat belt jammed, if he hadnt his seat belt on yeah he may have had a bang on the head and still alive to this day.

Also my dad was driving his Land cruiser without his seat belt, a hugh lorry was coming towards him, dad saw it coming and threw himself across the passagers seat etc.... while the lorry hit the land cruiser head on the front grill came off the truck and thru the windscreen, If my dad was wearing a seat belt he wouldnt be here today......

Thats my reasons

There are many reasons for wearing them and not wearing them

I never wear one as it make's it difficult to get my fags/sweeties/chewing gum out of my trouser pockets and almost impossible to get my mobile out of my jacket on the back seat.
Perhaps it's just me but belting up really causes problems when you're flying down a motorway and you're tryig to reach that can of Coke in the passenger footwell or the CD wallet behind the passenger seat.
On the downside to not wearing a belt, it's not easy when the coppers are behind you and you're desperately trying to get it on while you're on the phone, smoking a fag, drinking juice and steering with your knees!

Paul

Theres always one :D

Id guess its to do with more & more cars being equiped with airbags as standard & people are relying on those to save 'em instead?

The airbags are never meant to protect on their own... they're supposed to be a supplement to the seatbelt.

I know what its like to miss the airbag..... 16 staples in my head later :(

2 cases here-

1. Brother hit a tree side on as a driver, he was found relatively uninjured towards the passenger side of the car. He wasn't wearing a seatbelt, this appeared to have helped matters.

2. I was a back seat (middle) passenger in a vehicle 20 years ago, there was no seatbelt, a drunk ploughed into the side of us and took the car into the kerb side-on.I was projected upwards and hit the roof, breaking my neck. Maybe in this case a seatbelt would have kept me from lifting?

I wear one now ironically FOR comfort.

Princess Di, bless her, would have been alive today if she had worn one (and that was a 90 mph into a concrete pole)

They reckon the driver as well would have stood a chance if he had his on.

You don't have to be going fast.

A chap I know on was driving on a single track road in Sky at 30 odd mph when he swerved to avoid a sheep that had ran into the road, the car went straight into a ditch and stopped dead, he didn't and put a hied shaped dent into the wind screen,luckily he didn't go through but he did break his neck. He eventually made a a pretty good recovery as his spinal cord was intact, but he did have to wear a huge rigid plasic and metal collar for months and months (looked a right tw#t) and he'll never head a Mitre 5 again.

I can't bear to see kids unbelted in the backs (and sometimes in the front ) of any vehicle. What price do these irresponsible parents place upon the lives of their children ? Before the days of seatbelt law, I was guilty of this crime and my son was propelled forward between the driver and passenger seats from the back seat when we braked suddenly. His head came into contact with the radio and he still bears the scar to this day (he's now 24 and a Dad himself). Oh...and we were only just rolling forward probably not even doing 15 MPH ! So please you parents out there, make the kids belt up. Its too late when they are gone ! As for you adults....well you're adults, old enough to make up your own minds , while you still have fully functioning ones !

[Edited by Red Scooby widdow - 4/4/2003 5:37:35 PM]

Always wear one - always have - even before they were compulsory. If you had even been in a car with my dad, you will know why!

I think it is right for everyone to wear one, regardless of "I would be dead today if....." stories, but as an adult you have a choice (illegally) not to.

My concern is the many many kids I see without seatbelts. I hear "Oh, I am a safe driver so its ok", but I say "You may be safe, but what about the 100s of others out there who are not!".

Also, I could not live with myself if I crashed and killed one of my kids as a result of them not being strapped in. I do not understand why people cannot see the risk they are taking.