Poll: Do you as a driver wear a seatbelt?

[plk21]

I always do, and make everyone in _my_ car do so before it moves.

That said, I think it's your decision in your own car. I'm not a fan of making them manditory.

# If you are not free to choose wrongly and irresponsibly, you are not free at all. ? Jacob Hornberger (1995)

 

[drum]

as has been mentioned many times before... it's the law and I just do it out of habit when i get in the truck

 

[Mr N8]

I always wear my seatbelt.

 

[Klandestine]

seatbelts pwn

 

[fbrdphreak]

My $0.02
Of course I do, so does everyone in my car. I don't care about their safety, but my wallet. In NC, you get like a $100 or $200 fine for every passenger in your car not wearing a seatbelt. :Q

 

[blazerazor]

What about TRUCKS.? When I drive a Truck, I never wear a seatbelt.

But in a car or small truck I wear one if I'M driving - maybe depend distance driving and where.

As a Passenger in the Front seat YES. Always. I dont trust other ppl.

As a passenger in the back seats Rarely do I wear a seatbelt.

 

[sparkyclarky]

Originally posted by: scauffiel

Originally posted by: Wanescotting
Darn kids............

LOL!! Aint it the truth... Can't sneak anything past 'em....

Originally posted by: sparkyclarky

Originally posted by: HardcoreRobot
always, and i make sure my passengers do to

but it should NOT be ILLEGAL not to

Actually, it should be illegal if you don't buckle up. There is no reason not to, as seatbelts are not the cause of physical discomfort (at least not in any vehicle I've seen) and they have proven benefits in accidents. People not wearing seatbelts who get in accidents will generally cost more in the way of medical bills and such. Much of this extra cost will be shifted to others in some way shape or form. I don't want to have to pay more because somebody decides that wearing a seatbelt is somehow uncomfortable or inconvenient (which is simply not the case)

At the risk of hijacking... Where do you draw the line on this? Should it be illegal to eat fatty foods? Should it be illegal to eat 'too much' red meat? 'Junk' food? How about eating mexican food? Chinese? Smoking? Using power tools too often? Driving a car? All of these things have been blamed for contributing to increased medical costs according to some group at one time or another. So, by your way of thinking, we should outlaw them too - to keep your 'shifting' of medical costs down. The question you have to ask yourself is, "Is this MY body or the governments' body?" It's okay to have an abortion, ending a life that's not yours - but trying to end your own life if you've got a terminal disease? Hooboy, good luck. Prostitution, should you decide to go that route? Uh uh, sorry, in THIS case it's not your body to do with as you please either; nor is it your customers' bodies to do with as THEY please. With the proliferation of junk science, usually linked to dubious special interest groups, it will be a short time indeed before you won't be able to feed yourself your liquid gruel (because choking deaths drive up costs dontcha know) with anything other than a spoon (forks could poke an eye out if you're not careful and knives? Don't get me started.)

You should wear a seat belt because it's the smart thing to do. Not because some government/junk scientist/special interest flunky with a bad combover TELLS YOU TO. If you want to revel in your stupidity by flipping the bird at common sense, you should be allowed to, this IS America after all. What you SHOULDN'T be allowed to do is sue anything or anyone once you get a 'near Darwinism-Award' because of it.

</soapbox>


S.

The difference between the things that you listed and the seatbelt in a car is that the car seatbelt has a direct, provable correlation to saving lives and cutting down on serious injuries. The others are taken in degrees. If the one time you don't wear a seatbelt happens to be when you are in an accident, you could be screwed. All of your others are built up over time. Smoking a few times and eating unhealthy some of the time doesn't have that same sort of 'screwed if done once' type of effect. I'm not sure if I'm completely getting my point across, but I hope you can see what I'm saying. Generally I am for freedom, but part of the government's job is to protect the populace, even if from themselves. Hell, on a strictly humanitarian note, if wearing seatbelts was required by law, it would become much easier to crack down on parents who don't buckle their kids in. In a perfect world, everyone would buckle up automatically because it is the sane thing to do. However, we don't live in a perfect world and that is where the law sometimes has to step in.

 

[sparkyclarky]

Originally posted by: blazerazor
What about TRUCKS.? When I drive a Truck, I never wear a seatbelt.

But in a car or small truck I wear one if I'M driving - maybe depend distance driving and where.

As a Passenger in the Front seat YES. Always. I dont trust other ppl.

As a passenger in the back seats Rarely do I wear a seatbelt.

Back seat people have a damn good chance of going through the windshield in a crash, or at least being significantly hurt from the jostling around if they aren't buckled in.

 

[azilaga]

it's habit.

 

[StageLeft]

Yes, and if you don't I will lmao when you fly through the windshield.

 

[bharok]

yes
as i dont think dying is fun

 

[PatboyX]

never had anything "scared" into me...but see no reason not to.
weird, those who dont.

 

[g8wayrebel]

In a passenger vehicle...YES, almost always.I leave my passengers to decide for themselves. I don't think it should be a law that you must as an adult. I don't wear one in a commercial truck though.
edit for spelling error...make that two, DUH!!!Long day!:laugh:

 

[KokomoGSTmp]

Originally posted by: rh71
As the years pass, the manual seatbelts of older cars will phase out... and a higher percentage of occupants will wear seatbelts.

Question though - why aren't auto-seatbelts mandatory for new designs ? My dad's 2003 MPV didn't have them... I mean it's a minivan... safety first.

They were rendered "obsolete" by airbags. Manufacturers used automatic belt restraint systems to comply with safety regs back then... airbags fulfill that safety reg and have become so widespread.

So, manual belts (with automatic pretensioners) will become more and more commonplace... pretty much every new car has them along with an ever-growing # of airbags.

Back on topic, I personally never drive or ride without a belt. If you think you can ride in my car without a belt, you're probably going to eat window or have the center console in your ribs. My car corners pretty friggin well, even when I drive only at 5/10ths. I don't like the possiblity of being thrown about the passenger compartment even if the bucket seats are pretty snug.

 

[KokomoGSTmp]

Originally posted by: Insane3D
Do you believe everything you read? People in the back "crushing" the front passengers?!?! C'mon dude....

It's true... front passengers are ejected through the windshield with enough force to go quite far... rear passengers fly forward with enough force to create severe bodily injury to belted front passengers.

Seats aren't as strong as you might think. If you have a small box of DIY tools in your trunk and get into a serious accident (nowadays cars are MUCH stronger and more survivable) that you might otherwise walk away from... the toolbox might at least break a few bones and if it hits just right... might crack your head open. Crash tests in Europe have shown that the seat will break and objects behind you can become VERY deadly. And the severity of the crash need not be catastrophic to the properly secured and protected front passengers.

Just imagine throwing a person at 40mph. Getting creamed in tackle football or getting charged in basketball hurts enough...

 

[Forsythe]

As a driver and as a passenger, allways, allmost. I kinda like the strapped tight feeling, i might be a perv in 10 years time.
As a driver i use it because i don't have to spend energy trying to keep myself in the same position, as i usually lock the seatbelt as soon as i put it on, it's a technique i've mastered.

 

[Stumps]

although i always use a seat belt, my old man had his life saved by not wearing one, back in 1982 he had a car accident, where he was drunk and fell asleep behind the whell of his 1971 XY Falcon wagon, and hit a tree at an estimated speed of 130km/h, the force of the impact split the car in two just in front of the A pillar and flung the nose off to the other side of the road, mean while the rest of the car continued on it's merry way in to the tree, dad was flung out of the car and was trapped by his ankle between the dash and the bottom of the drivers seat, the non colaspable steering column penetrated the driver seat and ended up in the lugauge compartment, if dad had his seat belt on, he would have been impailed but the column just below his heart and would have most likely died straight away!...some times it's the stupid things that save ya life, since then mum banned him from the pub for all eternity!

 

[sparkyclarky]

Originally posted by: Stumps
although i always use a seat belt, my old man had his life saved by not wearing one, back in 1982 he had a car accident, where he was drunk and fell asleep behind the whell of his 1971 XY Falcon wagon, and hit a tree at an estimated speed of 130km/h, the force of the impact split the car in two just in front of the A pillar and flung the nose off to the other side of the road, mean while the rest of the car continued on it's merry way in to the tree, dad was flung out of the car and was trapped by his ankle between the dash and the bottom of the drivers seat, the non colaspable steering column penetrated the driver seat and ended up in the lugauge compartment, if dad had his seat belt on, he would have been impailed but the column just below his heart and would have most likely died straight away!...some times it's the stupid things that save ya life, since then mum banned him from the pub for all eternity!

Interesting story, but occurances like this are not the norm.

 

[Stumps]

of course not, and that piece of my life isn't saying don't wear seat belts...its just that strange things happen

 

[LoneWolf15]

Originally posted by: Insane3D
Nope...never have...can't stand 'em. Been ok for ~15 years...

Thank god we don't have any retarded laws forcing you to wear it in my state. Wearing it should be a choice...not mandatory. If you get in an accident and die because you weren't wearing one, it has no effect on anyone else. People are so comfortable nowadays with laws that force them to do things....*shrug*

Edit:

We do have a law that they must be worn by children, and I'm fine with that.

Of course, if you get in an accident and DON'T die, but because you weren't wearing one go through the windshield or hit it and receive traumatic brain injury, beome paraplegic or quadraplegic, or suffer some injury that requires long-term care, then everyone else who is in your insurance pool pays for your folly. The insurance agencies have contingency funds which are paid for by drivers' insurance premiums; in my state, there is a mandatory fee that is part of our insurance that covers such catastrophic claims. That fee here just went up from $100 to $127 a year because catastrophic claims jumped big time, and the fund wasn't prepared to handle the jump. Personally, I don't want it to go up again, nor do I want my regular premiums to go up because of others.

So a choice not to wear a seatbelt CAN affect others.

EDIT: I always wear mine, and anyone in my car wears one too or the car doesn't go. In Michigan, a driver can be ticketed if the passenger isn't wearing their seatbelt, and in some cases, so can the passenger.

1994 Acura Integra GS-R, 168,000 miles, still goes VROOM VROOM...

 

[zip1385]

Always. With my luck I would be dead without one.

 

[dabuddha]

Only an idiot wouldn't.

 

[Albis]

yes, it is a ticketable offense to not wear a seatbelt in a car in michigan now

 

[conjur]

I always do. Ever since about 1987 or so when Indiana made it a state law. I was on my co-op at that point and when I'd get home for weekends, it felt weird driving without it so it just became a habit.

 

[cavemanmoron]

Originally posted by: Zim Hosein
Inspired by Marlin1975's thread: Irony ??? Seat Belt thing

So, do you?

Topic Title: Poll: Do you as a driver wear a seatbelt?
Topic Summary: I'm curious...
Created On: 01/10/2005 11:00 PM
Yes i wear my seat belt,prob 90% of the time.

the 10 % i don't is while at work,moving vehicle like 50 yards at a time.