So you are saying she should move?
Yeah, I figure if you don’t have a home you bring the risk down to zero.
I think the real solution here is to learn to drive from the backseat.
I actually feel physically exposed if i’m in a car without a seat belt. I think it’s probably conditioning, based on the fact that i’ve been wearing them, both as passenger and driver, since i was a kid.
There was an interesting article in the New Yorker (i think) about 10 years ago, which talked about how the rise of airbags in cars had led to more and more people deciding that they no longer needed to wear seat belts.
The problem, as the article pointed out, is that airbags work best in conjunction with seat belts, because the seat belt keeps the person in place so that the airbag can do its job. Studies showed that accident victims who don’t wear seat belts often “miss” the airbags because the force of the accident pushed them sideways. And all this is to say nothing of the possibility of going through the window.
I’m not saying I didn’t deserve the ticket. I’m still sad though. 
I don’t think anyone was arguing with you about that.
It blew my mind when we started visiting the US, and motorcycle riders were driving down the highway without helmets on. I guess you really can’t force people to look after their own safety.
That bites, rachelellogram. I wear my seatbelt but it’s no one’s business if I choose not to do so.
I love the way seatbelts in newer cars can be adjusted for short folks like me, it’s nice not to have the belt go across my neck and up behind my ear.
Yeah, and of course it varies by state.
And when health care costs are being burdened by your province, they can pretty much enact ANY law to force you to look after yourself.
I’ve always thought you should have two insurance options. One payment level and you don’t have to wear a seatbelt (and good luck on the payments). Or you can pay significantly less and promise to wear one. But if they catch you NOT wearing one, its one big ass fine.
I posted about this a few years ago:
My wife and 3 of my kids were T-boned at an intersection where a guy ran a red light. She was doing probably less than 10 mph at the time. They guy running the light hit her minivan with such force that it flipped the van on its roof.
Everyone (My 3 kids and my wife) was wearing their seat belts and came out of it with nothing more than a minor scratch.
You can’t control the other people on the road. Seat belts save lives.
They are required in many (most?) states. Some still don’t require them. But where they are mandatory the law is usually enforced quite well.
I didn’t wear them until about 35 years ago when, as a front seat passenger, I went face-first through a windshield. I got a three hour pass from the hospital to attend my high school graduation, head and face wrapped in bandages. I’ve been belted in every time since.
My junior high kids were watching the old Steve McQueen “The Blob” (1957?) and were shocked to see the characters bouncing around in the convertibles with no sign of seatbelts, or really any way to attach a shoulder one. I told them times had changed.
In Illinois, the advertising says, “Click it or ticket”. They really watch for that.
Another thing about motorcycle helmets is that there is some research suggesting that their benefit, in terms of protecting your head, is, to at least some extent, outweighed by a loss of peripheral vision and ability to hear other traffic noises.
While i’m not completely convinced by this argument, and plenty of safety experts also take issue with it, there is no such trade-off for seat belts. They make you safer. Period. With basically no downside at all.
Only 20 states require helmets of all motorcycle riders; most other states only require them of younger riders. Only 3 states have no helmet law at all.
http://www.iihs.org/laws/helmetusecurrent.aspx
When I was growing up in Wisconsin, the state had a mandatory helmet law, which was repealed after heavy lobbying by motorcycle riders. The state now only requires you to wear a helmet if you’re under 18, or if you’re still riding with a learner’s permit.
Of course, if you’d been t-boned or rear-ended you might have been considerably worse off than sad. And the medical bills would have been a lot more than the fine.
I do not understand this thread. OP, do you enjoy being flamed? Because I honestly can’t think of another reason that you would post this. You even say right in the OP, “you can lecture me about safety if you want,” thus indicating that you know damn well the tone the thread is going to take.
Being pulled over for no good reason sucks. Being pulled over for knowingly breaking a traffic violation… well, I guess it still sucks for you but I don’t really have a lot of sympathy for it. I didn’t come on here and post a sympathy thread when I got pulled over for doing 50 in a 35. I was doing 50 in a 35, dude. I deserved the ticket. Nobody’s going to give me sympathy for that, nor should they.
They can’t be adjusted ENOUGH. Nearly all seatbelts do this to me, even the ones in brand new cars. I’ve often wondered if they would break my neck in a bad accident. Before anyone nags, yes I wear the fuckers anyway and spend half my time pulling them off of my neck to quit choking.
I get mightily pissed off when I get a ticket, not because I didn’t do the infraction, but because if I don’t drive like every asshole around here, I’M the road hazard. It’s such a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” system, and it frustrates the hell out of me.