And second, are there any of you who refuse to wear one even where the law requires it?
Seat belts are second nature to me. I feel naked if I don’t have one on when I’m driving/riding in a car. And I won’t let anyone ride with me without their seatbelts if I’m the one driving. But I know many people, some of them family members, who despise seat belts and often neglect them altogether. I think the only reason I’ve ever been given for this is that they feel restrictive and/or uncomfortable.
So, I’m wondering how many of you have a loathing for seatbelts, and why that is. This isn’t intended to be a preachy thread about vehicle safety, honestly. I’m just curious to get an intelligent opinion from the other side, here.
Yes, I would, and people who don’t wear their seatbelts when I’m in the car with them piss me off because if we are in an accident, their body is going to be like a sack of potatoes bouncing off me and everything else inside the car.
I mean, if you wanna kill yourself, fine, but must you drag me along with you?
I used to be horribly lax about seatbelts, dismissing them as uncomfortable and an unnecessary bother, and in the eyes of my high school classmates, wearing a seat belt was seen as something only a wuss would do. Then a friend’s mother, who worked as a physical therapist, convinced me through her many anecdotes from her work that wearing a seat belt is very important, as she had seen first-hand what happened to people who were not wearing one when they got into an accident. Shortly after I got used to wearing one my state passed a law in the mid 1980s requiring seat belt use. At first the law was very lax, and one could only be fined $5 (big whoop-de-doo) for not wearing a seat belt and only if stopped for another violation. Now the fine is $10 (still not much of a deterrent, if you ask me) and the police can now stop you just for not wearing a seat belt. Even if the law were repealed I’d still wear my seatbelt and insist that anyone who rides with me wears theirs. I just don’t feel safe without it on.
I’m like you, Asimovian, I feel odd if I don’t have it on, and if I;m driving, everyone in the car wears it or we ain’t goin’ nowhere.
I really don’t understand why anyone would not wear them. They save lives every day. I can see a bit of apprehension towards airbags (though modern ones are probably just as safe as seat belts to non-children.) But not wearing a seatbelt? It’s nothing but stupid.
Oh, and I’ve heard more than a couple people complain about them in a fashion similar to this:
“The government ain’t gonna tell me what I can or can’t do!”
Yeah, good reasoning, endager you life and the lives of others just because you’ve got a beef with the government.
When I was younger I never wore mine, laws be damned. Then I got pulled over and received my first and only ticket for not buckling up. After that I forced myself to. Now it’s second nature though. I feel just wrong without it on. I had to ride in a van once that didn’t have them and I felt like I was going to fly out the window every time we hit a bump.
I still hate with a firey passion those airbags. Even if they are safer. Silly fears!
Absolutely. Back in the 60s, before they were standard equipment, we went to the trouble of paying more to have them installed in a new VW. Of course, the VW itself would have crumpled like the tin can that it was if there had been a serious accident, but at least I wouldn’t have gone through the windshield.
I always wear mine. I originally started wearing it only because the law said I had to, but now I feel uncomfortable without it, like I’m unprotected. The only time I don’t wear it is when I’m driving my kit car, which not only doesn’t have seat belts, but it’s a tiny little plastic car with the gas tank right behind your head! Woo! Talk about living dangerously.
Mrs Geek hates wearing her seat belt, and still often refuses to wear it even after being ticketted twice for it. The second time, geek child #3 (5 years old) and our little nephew who is about the same age were both in the back seat, and started singing “bad boys bad boys, what you gonna do” as the cop walked up to the car. You’d think after that much humiliation she’d wear the damn thing, but many times she still doesn’t. She claims it makes her claustrophobic to wear it.
There used to be an ad about using your seat belt. The voice over was something about how the belt made the speaker claustophobic. The picture was a woman swathed in plaster casts and bandages, in a wheelchair.
An EMT I know says that if people don’t want to wear seatbelts or motorcycle helmets they should have an extra fee tacked on to their license and registration fees to pay for therapy for the folks who will have to scrape their brains off the highway.
I was born in 1961, and I’ve pretty much used a seatbelt my entire life. My father was a neurosurgeon who saw first-hand many times a week what could happen without one, so he had then installed in every vehicle we owned, even though they cost extra back then. He even had a shoulder harness belt installed in the 1967 VW bug he got used.
I can’t get into the car without putting on my seatbelt, even if I’m just backing out of the driveway to let someone else out, then pulling right back in again. I hate having to ride in other people’s cars if their seatbelt doesn’t work correctly.
Our kids also wear seatbelts. Our 11yo son is even still in a booster seat because even though he is technically old enough to ride with a regular seat belt, he’s VERY small for his age (just over 4 ft, 50 pounds), and I just don’t trust a regular seatbelt to hold him in place in a hard stop, much less a serious accident.
However, a friend of mine was in a very bad accident a couple of years ago, where he got t-boned by a semi in his sedan. The semi hit the passenger side of the car, where my friend’s girlfriend was sitting. The girlfriend wasn’t wearing a seatbelt (she apparently hates them and rarely wore them at all), so she was thrown into my friend’s lap. She did end up with some broken bones, but the officers at the scene said that she was saved by NOT wearing a seat belt, which would have held her place while the semi crushed that side of the car.
Always do. I’ve spun on ice once or twice, and the seatbelt helped keep me where I needed to be to regain control. I’ve also seen a Caddy flip over a guard rail. The driver, who was wearing his seat belt, was uninjured.
I have been wearing seat belts since the mid 60s. I can recall installing them with my father on our '63 Chrysler.
When I started dating my lovely wife, she would not buckle up. I would not start the car and just wait. When she asked what I was waiting for I wold tell her that her face was far too pretty to get all cut up by a windshield. She would buckle up and we would go. 35 years later she buckles up as second nature.
Going on family holidays in India always felt a bit dicey as the cars there didn’t have seatbelts (this was fifteen years ago, don’t know if things are different now)
Not that it makes any sense at all but I prefer not to wear a seatbelt if I am nipping down to the dairy (or anywhere else less then 5 mins away). I know it is wrong but sometimes I just can’t be arsed (and the fines are pretty big here). I always wear mine if the child is in the car. Further then a 5 min trip, everyone is all strapped up.
I’m a small person. One of the things that I’m always conscious of is that, statistically, folks with my body type tend to live longer natural lives – but are also more likely to snuff it in an accident than larger people.
So I wear my seatbelt, cross with the lights, and avoid stairs when I’m drunk.
Same here. I moved to a town that had bored cops and I got a ticket for not wearing one.
I used to wear one on the highway but not on little jaunts to the store. After the ticket I started wearing one all the time but didn’t like it. After the woman t-boned me while driving to work I realized* it isn’t MY driving skills I need to worry about on the road. Now, I swear by them.
I don’t really remember why I didn’t like them. Uncomfortable or something. After I got into the habit of putting it on I don’t even notice it.
*I always knew it was other idiots on the road I needed to worry about, but that accident really drove (pardon the pun) the point home.
My dad used to design seatbelts for GM. We grew up learning the ins & outs of becoming a lethal projectile when an automobile hits something that don’t move. Now I wear seatbelts most the time. (Sometimes I don’t when I’m in a back seat.)
My mother didn’t wear seatbelts, even after she’d been broadsided (by a police car, no less!) and suffered injuries she almost certainly wouldn’t have if she’d been belted up. But my sister and I learned from that. After a few years we finally got our parents to belt up, too.
Both my wife Pepper Mill and my daughter MilliCal are conscientious selt belt wearers.
I wear my seatbelt every time I’m driving or as a passenger. It’s not THAT uncomfortable and you’re only in it a short time. I don’t feel right without being buckled up!
