Seatbelts, everyone! (A Poll)

In My Humble Opinion
21

  1. Is it a law…
    Yes, it’s the law.

  2. Do I?
    Absolutely. All the time. My 8 year old son has never been in a car unrestrained, and he doesn’t see it as optional.

3a) Because it’s a law, or safer…
Both. I don’t believe that we’re allowed to obey only the laws that we agree with. You can’t pick and choose. It is safer. I work in EMS, and I’ve been on the scene of enough motor vehicle accidents to believe that. Accidents where people were ejected (sometimes the driver from the rear windshield in a spin out, centrifugal force is a powerful thing) or when the driver was killed from a passenger side t-bone at relatively low speeds. At higher speeds, I’ve seen the driver of the impacted vehicle on the ground behind the car that hit him. And you do NOT want to know what a steering wheel will do to a 3 month old unrestrained infant sitting on an unrestrained mom’s lap in the case of a head on collision. It took a few seconds for my partner and I to realize that, no, mom wasn’t somehow eviscerated, that pile of stuff on her lap used to be a baby. That was the only run after which I felt I needed a CISD.

  1. Do I agree with it?
    Yes I do, and not just for the safety factor. And even if I didn’t, reference the picking and choosing in number 3.
22

Fair enough. I tend to agree, actually (about opting out rather than opting in). I just wondered if choosing not to wear a belt/helmet somehow put them into a different category to other higher-risk-than-necessary pursuits.

Which reminds me that I really should get around to finding/filling in a donor card.

23

Yes, it’s the law in Texas.
Yes, I wear one.
I do it for several reasons… I feel safer, I slide around less, and I don’t want a ticket.
I personally don’t think it should be a law. Whether or not I choose to wear one should be MY decision, not the state’s.

As to your examples, data shows you’re far more likely to die in an accident from slamming into the dash that you are from wearing a belt. The only reason not to wear one is because they’re inconvenient, but then so is death.

24

  1. Yes

  2. Yes

  3. Both. If seatbelt wearing were optional, I would still use them (although I wouldn’t be so anal about not removing my seatbelt when I take my jumper off).

  4. Yes

25

  1. Yes

  2. and 3a. I’d be dead if I hadn’t worn my seatbelt once in high school, so I always wear it now.

  3. I’m perfectly happy to legislate protections for those too dopey to protect themselves, so I think it’s a great law.

–Cliffy

26

  1. Is it a law where you live that you have to wear your seatbelt?
    Yes

  2. Do you?
    Always

3a) If yes, do you because it’s a law, or because you believe it makes you safer?
Primarily safety, so I don’t even think much about it being a law or not.

  1. If you do have such a law, do you agree with it?
    People should not be forced to wear belts when they drive on their own private roads. For all driving on public roads, I most certainly agree with this law.
    However, I do have a quibble with something Barbarian said:

As a short woman with a big bust, my seatbelt is darn uncomfortable, and believe me, I’m wearing it “right.” I’m not even that short or that big chested – I’m just on the short side of average in the height department, and just on the big side of average in the ta ta department.

Using one of those clip-on adjusters takes care of the height issue for the most part – although I’m sour on any product that requires me to go out and purchase yet another product in order to use it properly.

Now the bust thing – a seat belt is essentially one-half of a giant Cross Your Heart [sup]TM[/sup] bra. There is far too much lifting and separating going on while I am driving. Passing truck drivers probably get a kick out of it, but I’m still uncomfortable.

27
  1. Is it a law where you live that you have to wear your seatbelt?

No. “Live Free or Die”, sometimes literally.

  1. Do you?

It depends. I usually do if I am going to go on the Interstate, or in the winter. Or if I know I will be going into Vermont. Otherwise I don’t bother.

3a) If yes, do you because it’s a law, or because you believe it makes you safer?

When I do, it’s for safety.

3b) If no, why not?

Pure laziness, and just because I can.

  1. If you do have such a law, do you agree with it?

i wouldn’t have problem with such a law. I know that I risking serious injury and a cost to myself and society. Motorcycle helmet laws would be nice too.

28

Yes.

Yes.

Neither. I wear it because it DOES make me safer. There’s no “belief” about it. It’s a fact.

Absolutely. There is no law anywhere that I know of that says you have to wear a seat belt anytime you’re in a car - the law states that you have to wear a seat belt if you’re on a public roadway. If you want to go bombing around a private track at 200mph with no seat belt you’re free to do so. If you want to be on the people’s roads, you follow their rules. If you don’t want to wear a sealt belt, find an alternative means of transportation or lobby the government to change the law; you don’t have an intrinsic right to do whatever the hell you want on property that isn’t yours. Evidently there are still some people who have to be saved from their own stupidity, so the government is quite justified in demanding seat belts on the roads they build and manage at the behest of the populace.

Oh, my God. How can a sane adult believe this?

29

#1 Yes (Ca.)

#2 Yes

#3 Because it is safer. When I was in the Service I never used to wear my seat belt. I had a '65 Mustang with lap belts only. One day, with my car in the shop I borrowed a friends Escort that had automatic belts. I was in an accident and the car was totalled, if not for the seat automatic belts I would have been killed. Since that day I always wear my belt.

#4 I don’t really agree with the laws. I don’t agree with helmet laws either but I still would not ride with out one.

30
  1. Is it a law where you live that you have to wear your seatbelt?

Yes.

  1. Do you?

Yes, again.

3a) If yes, do you because it’s a law, or because you believe it makes you safer?

I do it because it does make me safer. I always wear my seatbelt. It’s such a part of starting my car up each time that I’ll put it back on after I’ve gotten out of my car to open the parking gate.

  1. If you do have such a law, do you agree with it?

Yes. For most of the pro-reasons stated above by others. I used to feel it was each person’s personal business if they wanted to kill themselves. Then it was explained to me how it does cost everyone else if people don’t wear seatbelts and get into accidents, so I’m all for it being a law.

31

It’s the law.
I do so.
Because I value my life and respect the violent aspects of physics.
I only get wishy-washy on the validity of the Law in personal safety matters. I have to agree that public roads and daily driving have enough civic content to be subject to civil law.

I do know one person who claims to have been spared serious injury by not wearing his belt; he was T-boned in the driver’s side of a Jeep Wrangler (read: no doors) but literally jumped out of the seat before impact. I should mention that Mike Mahan was a rodeo cowboy, and more agile and alert than the average driver.

Friends vs. Seatbelts… the score is
Living Belted Drivers: 3
Dead Belted Passengers: 1
Dead Unbelted Drivers: 1

As the University of Wyoming cross-country team if they think seat belts are juvenile. No, wait, they were all eight ejected from a Jeep Wrangler and killed. Imagine fitting eight tall, strong persons through a windshield in half a second.

I’m maybe more insistent than most; my '65 Mustang has five-point racing harnesses bolted through to the back bumper. It may not have ABS or airbags or crumple zones, but it’s got God’s Own seatbelts.

32

  1. Is it a law where you live that you have to wear your seatbelt? Yep, in Michigan its now a “stopping offense” I believe (ie they can stop you for now wearing one)

  2. Do you? Always. My car has passive restraint (aka automatic belts) but even when not in my car I always wear belt. Also, if passengers refuse to wear belts, they can walk instead.

3a) If yes, do you because it’s a law, or because you believe it makes you safer?
Safer.
4) If you do have such a law, do you agree with it? Yes, basically for the public hazard/public costs arguements already made hear. Plus, on a moe personal thing, let’s say I hit a car and the driver, not wearing his/her seatbelt, is ejected through the windsheild and dies of their injuries. Aren’t I now guilty of vehicular manslaughter? If the driver was belted and emerged with non-fatal injuries I wouldn’t be. Ergo, their seatbelt use affects me.

33
  1. Yes
  2. Yes
  3. Yes I wear them because it’s safer, it seems to me that if you are attached to the vehicle you won’t be whipped around as much as if you were loose inside and that’s got to help prevent injuries. That said there are some accidents that will be survivable if the occupants aren’t wearing seatbelts as well as some accidents that will be impossible to survive no matter what.
  1. I agree strongly, in fact I wore a seatbelt before we had the law passed here, and I have probably driven a total of six blocks without a seatbelt since I got my license and I felt really uncomfortable doing it.

Keith

34

:rolleyes:

35
  1. *Is it a law where you live that you have to wear your seatbelt? *Yes.

2)* Do you? *Yes.

3a)* If yes, do you because it’s a law, or because you believe it makes you safer?* Safer. I always wore a belt before it became a law here. I drove sports cars when I was younger and they always had lap belts, and those belts saved my bacon more than once. And I too find them uncomfortable.

3b) If no, why not? NA

  1. If you do have such a law, do you agree with it? Yes. Generally, I’m against any law designed to protect my from my own carelessness/stupidity for a number of reasons, not least of which is that I resent being patronized. However, as explained above, not wearing seatbelts has a cost to society as a whole, and so it’s in my, and your, best interests that in this case, the law exists.
36

Yes we have that law in Texas.

I wear my seat belt now. I get pulled over so much and these tickets are getting expensive.

I used not to wear my seatbelt because I didn’t think it was the gov’t right to tell me how to live my life. Now I wear it because of some wrecks I have seen.

Like I said I do not agree with the law. Nor did I agree with the helmet law(they recently repeal that stupidity in Texas thinking about buying another hawg now. I think it should be the person’s decision that is driving to wear one or not.

37
  1. Law? Yup.
  2. Do I? Yup.
  3. I do it because it does make me safer. Not just statistically, but this frail bag of flesh and bones was saved by a seatbelt. Otherwise, I’d have been smeared across two or three cars and a few lanes of traffic up near Morris, MN in 1997.
  4. Yes, I agree with it. I don’t usually insist that my passengers wear them, but I will in certain circumstances.
38

**1) Is it a law where you live that you have to wear your seatbelt? **

In Colorado, those in the front seat must wear a belt. However, I don’t think you can be stopped just because you aren’t. However, if you are stopped for something else, and they notice you’re not wearing your belt, they can bust you for it.

**2) Do you? **

Religiously. I also wear leathers and a motorcycle helmet every time I ride my motorcycle.

**3a) If yes, do you because it’s a law, or because you believe it makes you safer? **

Because it will spare me pain and injury and hospital bills if some moron (not) driving their SUV whilst simultaniously talking on their cell phone, adjusting their kid’s car seat, and reading the newspaper hits me.

**4) If you do have such a law, do you agree with it? **

I do not agree with the seatbelt law in my state. My take on laws is that they should only be made if it prevents obvious harm or endangerment of one person by another. I have a difficult time seeing how you’re hurting or endangering anyone else by not wearing your seat-belt. You’re endangering yourself, but I believe people should be allowed to endanger themselves as long as they don’t endanger anyone else in the process.

Incidentally, Colorado’s law with regards to motorcycle riders is that you don’t have to have a helmet, but you do have to have eye protection of some sort. I think this strikes a reasonable compromise. Nobody - and and I mean NOBODY - can possibly see with a 60 MPH wind in their naked eyes. And if a piece of gravel or a bug hits your eye? You’re going to crash into someone else from the pain. And probably loose your eyesight in that eye too. I like this law - I think it strikes the perfect compromise between allowing morons who don’t want to wear a helmet turn themselves into head-injury vegetables, (Darwin in action! Clean that gene pool!) but it generally prevents them from hurting anyone else in the process.
Incidentally, when I started driving at 16, I wore my seatbelt religiously. When I was 17 and a half, I got myself (and my friend who was in the car with me) into a roll-over accident. We both came out with no injuries at all, not even scratches or bruises, because of our seatbelts. I knew wearing a seat-belt was the right thing to do before that, but that kinda hammered it home for me. One incident like this isn’t statistically significant, but FWIW, I think I was spared at least critical injury, if not death, by my seatbelt.

My leathers and motorcycle helmet haven’t had to save me from nastyness yet (I’ve gotten less reckless as I’ve aged), but I’m guessing it’s probably only a matter of time before they also save my ass from the aforementioned moron in the SUV…
-Ben

39
  1. Yes
  2. Yes
  3. Because it’s an automatic habit. When little, in my parents car, the car didn’t move without everyone in seatbelts. Now I find it strange and wrong to not have my seatbelt on. But, given the choices of safety or fear of ticket, I would suppose safety.
  4. Yes.
40

1) Is it law that that I have to wear a seatbelt?

Yup, both my home in VT, and here at school in NY.

2) Do I?

Hell yes.

3a) Because of the law, or safety?

Definetly safety. I’m not one to always follow laws, but I do try to keep myself alive. Now, it’s more a matter of habit than anything else. I get into a car, I close the door, I put on my seatbelt. If I forget to for some reason, I don’t feel right after about 30 seconds of driving/riding, and quickly fix the problem.

4) Do I agree with said laws?

Yes. As RickJay said, you drive on the public’s roads, you follow their laws.

As a side note, I an very adament on this subject. I have alomst no sympathy for people who die/get injured in accidents because they weren’t wearing a seatbelt. The same goes for motorcyle accidents without a helmet. It’s just stupidity (I apoligize for insulting those of you who choose not to wear them, but it is!) It just seems to me that a little bit of discomfort (which most people seem not to experience) is worth your life.