Yes. Though typically only the driver can be cited for back-seat violators, while front-seat violators are jointly culpable.
Whoa. Glad I asked. Thank you. I guess my Mainers in the back seat will be buckling up. And, really, not just for the law. This has been an eye-opening thread. Thanks!
It’s not how fast you go, it’s how fast you stop that matters.
Yeah, I always buckle up even in cabs. It’s amazing how unpredictable car crashes can be, and how even simple looking events (car accident video) can lead to ejections.
I always buckle up in a cab. Last time I rode in a cab with my son, the driver said my son had to be belted in, but I didn’t. I said no worries, I always buckle up. My parents were very strict about it when I was a child, and I feel a little undressed if I’m not belted in.
I had a friend die in an accident that wasn’t really her fault (she skidded on illegal gray water run-off that was frozen, and went off a steep Indiana hill (there are huge hills here). But she wasn’t buckled in, and could have lived if she had been. I, on the other hand, once came out of a head-on collision at highway speed (55mph on a state road) with a sprained ankle and a slight concussion from being hit with the rear view mirror when the windshield shattered. It was a very small car, and I’ve no doubt I would have either hit the windshield, gone through it, or gotten horrific injuries from the steering wheel if I’d not been buckled in. I took one day off work, and was back to normal, albeit with an aircast on my ankle, and popping a little ibuprofen. Had a new car within 48 hours.
But you all must know what I mean (or I am terribly out of touch, albeit), that when you hop in a NY cab, you don’t buckle up, you just go!
Of course, I am saying that i wont’ do it that way again, but that is “the” way it’s usually done.
Years ago, around here, the taxi drivers didn’t like it when they were required to buckle-up passengers. They liked feeling they were able to put a passenger through the windscreen or out the door if he pulled a knife.
In a lot of places, taxi drivers are next to the top of jobs most likely to be injured by criminal assualt. (Policeman is more dangerous, but only because they are so often injured in traffic accidents – walking on the road to give you a traffic ticket is one of the most dangerous jobs around.)
How is one ejected from a non-convertible car? Messily. At least it was quick, but that’s no way for a person to die.
Me and my wife got into an argument with a taxi driver because we did not seat our son in the middle between us in the backseat, instead we had him seated to the side. We told him a four year old in the middle would become a meat missile out the windshield in a crash, he flat refused to believe this was possible and said he had never seen such a thing happen.:rolleyes:
Most taxis don’t even have seat belts in the back, or the driver removes them here.
Driver and front passenger seat belt use is mandatory by law though.
In the UK the law is clear that all drivers and passengers should buckle up. Passengers over 14 years old and 135 centimetres tall are responsible for themselves but children are the responsibility of the driver. Babies and small children need proper seats. There is a 100GBP fine if you don’t.
There are some exceptions - pregnant women, some medical conditions and people in vintage cars that never had belts fitted.
The accident happened in New Jersey. It is already the law that all passengers must be buckled up.
Not in New Jersey. The driver is cited for not having minor passengers buckled in. Adults get their own ticket.
In the middle of all this serious and necessary conversation about seatbelts - am I the only one who keeps reading this topic as “John Nash Orbits …” and thinking that was a hell of a car crash.
crickets
Just me? Ok.
Sometimes it is very hard to get buckled up in a taxi. The belts are buried because so few people use them. Also attaching the buckle involves pushing on a wet noodle. Not really encouraged. You really have to insist in most NYC taxis.
There aren’t exceptions here. I even got a pamphlet from my OB/Gyn when I was pregnant on how to wear a seatbelt safely through the whole pregnancy.
Also, vintage cars can be licensed two different ways: regular road-safe plates, or special vintage car plates. To get a regular plate, the car must be retrofitted with seatbelts, and then you can drive it like any other car, even on the highway, as long as it can keep up with minimum speed requirements on the highway. If it’s licensed as a vintage car, you can’t drive it on the interstates, or state highways, and there a limit to the actual number of miles you can put on it in a year that is very low-- something like 500. I owned a road-safe vintage car. It wasn’t that old, relative to vintage cars on the road, and it actually had an even newer engine in it. It was a '61 Falcon I drove in the late 90s, and it had the original block, but the head was from a '77 Maverick. It had a carburetor from a '68 Falcon or Comet, and got 25mpg in the city. I put the seatbelts in.
If I’d licensed it as vintage, I pretty much would have been limited to driving it in parades and at old car shows, and maybe occasionally short trips in the city.
He was picked up at Newark Airport and going to Princeton. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t a NYC cab.
Do NYC cabs still have those annoying recordings from “celebrities” about buckling up?
Interesting note is that they were scheduled to be picked up by a limousine. It didn’t show and they took the taxi.
Of course, if you don’t wear your seatbelt, there’s going to be a pretty close correspondence between the two in event of an accident.
That sounds like an interesting story.
I’m not sure why I assumed New York. Apparently I was under the impression that they had moved Princeton.
This. Here’s YouTube search results for “thrown from car”. I think the two-click rule is in effect here because after opening those search results, you will have to then click on a video link yourself before you see anything horrifying.