Seat Belts - 2014 and people still done user them!

[Neonblau]

Craigyp79 said:

I think if people don't want to wear a seatbelt the only person that will suffer physically is themselves, I don't see why we need yet another nannying device for the idiots in our society.

Back seat passengers?

[aw51 121565]

357RS said:

That's odd. In that BBC article there seems to be absolutely no mention of the old "Clunk-Click; every trip" campaign.

I wonder why not?

'Twas always going to be thus following the planting of Yewtree in the national conscience... Seen any old Top Of The Pops being presented by the same chap recently? No? Same PC agenda .

Note to BBC - you can NOT delete the past, whether yours or anyone else's!!

I know a few people who choose not to wear seatbelts; it's a scary mentality (especially when they claim that they lost a friend or family member because the deceased person had a seat belt on and the dear departed might otherwise have survived had they not had their belt on) .

[irocfan]

well here's the thing people have survived because they weren't wearing a belt - it's waaaaaay out-weighed by those who've been killed by not wearing them but still it has happened.

I learned to drive before seatbelts became compulsory and whole I wear my belt 99% of the time - sometimes I don't: "just popping up to the station" etc. Is it a bad habit? Of course it is, then again so is smoking and excessive drinking...

[DIW35]

Having seen the result of what happens when someone goes through the windscreen of a car, 2 friends involved in two completely separate incidents, there's no way I wouldn't wear mine, even if it wasn't compulsory.

[Derek Smith]

One accident down my way:

Driver of a passenger car, exceeding the 60mph limit comfortably, with two passengers, one in the seat behind him, is chatting away and misses his braking point for a corner, possibly doesn't brake at all. Coming around the bend from the other direction is a SAAB 9000. He hits it just in front of the f/n/s/wheel and spins off the road. The road is higher than the surrounding land and the car ends up in a tree. None are wearing seatbelts.

The driver is injured seriously but not critically, the front passenger is unconscious but not otherwise badly injured but the bloke in the rear is thrown forwards and is stuck between the front seat and the door.

The door cannot be opened because there is a tree in the way.

The chap suffocates due to the construction of his chest. The driver, his mate, can do nothing apart from watch him slowly die.

[Stoofa]

As many a police officer has said - "I've never unbuckled a corpse."
Sure, there are plenty of situations where someone has died, even though they were wearing a seat belt - but the fact they were wearing one means they weren't dead at the scene and had a chance.
The "I know of someone who survived because they weren't wearing one...." seems pretty anicdotal, I'm yet to actually read a story where that was the case and I've never read "....and they would have survived if they had choosen not to wear one".

As others have said, if people want to be stupid enough not to wear one then let them get on with it. I always make sure people in the back of my car wear them as in an accident they could damage/kill me by not wearing one, but all the others - knock yourselves out.

[Rude-boy]

I have a very simple rule that, unless we are going around the paddock or perimeter road of a race track (IE 20mph tops and very short distances on private land, you wear your seatbelt if I am driving or you are sitting behind me.

One us us will be getting out if you don't like it.

I am well aware that they do not fix all known problems and sometimes can make things worse but, as a massive rule, they are a good thing and I don't like the idea of 15 stone of passenger hitting the back of the seat I am sitting in at 20g.

[grumpy52]

Any others remember the sled that was used to demonstrate how effective seat belts w ere ?
It was a seat on runners fixed on a slope with a stop at the bottom,the impact speed was only 10mph but the distance an un belted dummy travelled out of the seat was quite spectacular.

[V8forweekends]

TwigtheWonderkid said:

Craigyp79 said:

I think if people don't want to wear a seatbelt the only person that will suffer physically is themselves, I don't see why we need yet another nannying device for the idiots in our society.

Because society has a duty of care towards fkwits who are too stupid to make obviously sensible decisions for themselves.

Where is the duty of care to people who aren't fkwits and don't want a daft device that is pointless and will be expensive to repair when it goes wrong and is intended to force them to do something they already do?

[Durzel]

Craigyp79 said:

I think if people don't want to wear a seatbelt the only person that will suffer physically is themselves, I don't see why we need yet another nannying device for the idiots in our society.

What about the first responders who have to clean up their remains after they've exited via the windscreen?

[over_the_hill]

grumpy52 said:

Any others remember the sled that was used to demonstrate how effective seat belts w ere ?
It was a seat on runners fixed on a slope with a stop at the bottom,the impact speed was only 10mph but the distance an un belted dummy travelled out of the seat was quite spectacular.

If you were running at 10 mph that would be a fairly decent pace (beyond what a lot of people could manage and 10 miles in 60 mins is a pretty good performance)

Now if you were going that fast and ran into a tree or other solid object - trust me it would hurt - a lot !

[Vipers]

Craigyp79 said:

I think if people don't want to wear a seatbelt the only person that will suffer physically is themselves, I don't see why we need yet another nannying device for the idiots in our society.

Unless they are the passenger behind the driver, or front passenger who are belted in, and both could sustain serious or fatal injuries as the rear passenger who chooses not to use a seat belt goes flying past.

There was an incident years ago where a young boy in the back seat went through the windscreen, on his way through his knee caught a babys head (the baby was strapped in the front seat in a rear facing child seat), the baby died from that injury.

[SV8Predator]

AyBee said:

I never wear my belt....

I've got harnesses instead

But when you get big your mummy will take the harness off, and then (presumably) you'll want to pass your driving test?

[AyBee]

SV8Predator said:

AyBee said:

I never wear my belt....

I've got harnesses instead

But when you get big your mummy will take the harness off, and then (presumably) you'll want to pass your driving test?

Perhaps I can upgrade to big boys seats soon too?

[North West Tom]

What baffles me is that these people would rather listen to the incessant beeping noise their car makes when their seatbelt isn't plugged in. I see it all the time on Instagram and Youtube etc, people trying to talk over the 'BEEP BEEP BEEP, BEEP BEEP BEEP' in the background. It's a bit of a cliche when these seatbelt threads pop up but it just doesn't feel natural to drive without it on. It's a habit to automatically put it on as soon as I get in a car.

[ModernAndy]

I'm not sure this is a universal phenomenon but when I worked in dealerships nobody wore their seatbelt. I don't just mean when popping cars round the corner either.

My dad was a firefighter in a rural area with more car crashes than fires. I've seen some of the accident investigation photos and case studies from people crashing without a seatbelt. It seriously isn't nice.

[ModernAndy]

Also, I attended a car show that the police were at with a few 'wear your seatbelt' props including the chair on the ramp. They had a Renault Clio that had had a little bit of a bump, from memory I think it had been rear-ended.

I actually felt my blood run cold when the officer informed me that the driver of the car had died in an accident that took place at approximately 10mph.

[Vipers]

ModernAndy said:

Also, I attended a car show that the police were at with a few 'wear your seatbelt' props including the chair on the ramp. They had a Renault Clio that had had a little bit of a bump, from memory I think it had been rear-ended.

I actually felt my blood run cold when the officer informed me that the driver of the car had died in an accident that took place at approximately 10mph.

Reminds me of my brothers wife years ago, sitting sideways in one of the old cars wirh a column shift and bench seat, drove over a hump back slowly, hit some black ice and slid into a lampost, she was thrown forward and hit the side of her head on the screen, it didnt even break.

Concussion, three days later she died. But you just wont convince every body.

When I used to watch Ulster ITV for the HD version earlier this year, (we didnt have ITV in HD in Grampian till,recently), they used to show some good ads of people not paying attention when driving and the consequences, very graphic and got the point over I thought.

Edited by Vipers on Wednesday 1st October 09:29

[Pepperami]

People tend to know that it's an offence, but if I pull someone over for the offence it's usually on by the time I get to their car (video evidence usually confirms the offence) or they claim they forgot to put it on. I will never believe this. Surely if you have been driving for any length of time or had responsible parents with a car when growing up then putting a seatbelt on is a totally unconscious act by now.

And it's now a £100 non endorsable fixed penalty.

It's also possible to categorise the people who don't wear them.
1. the majority of white van man.
2. HGV drivers (invincibility complex?
3. Yoofs who want to appear rebellious. Particularly yoofs who partake in cruise type events with cars modified for show rather than go.

Women do tend to wear them, just not correctly.

[boobles]

Pepperami said:

People tend to know that it's an offence, but if I pull someone over for the offence it's usually on by the time I get to their car (video evidence usually confirms the offence) or they claim they forgot to put it on. I will never believe this. Surely if you have been driving for any length of time or had responsible parents with a car when growing up then putting a seatbelt on is a totally unconscious act by now.

And it's now a £100 non endorsable fixed penalty.

It's also possible to categorise the people who don't wear them.
1. the majority of white van man.
2. HGV drivers (invincibility complex?
3. Yoofs who want to appear rebellious. Particularly yoofs who partake in cruise type events with cars modified for show rather than go.

Women do tend to wear them, just not correctly.

Anyone who thinks that it's "ok" not to wear them really needs educating in my opinion.
The majority of people who don't wear them will only ever think about being caught by the police & fined, they never actually realize that the potential for killing themselves is far worse than being fined £100. Such a shame that society is more worried about being fined than being alive.