No Good Reason's Not to wear Your Seatbelt

Right up there on my list of pet peeves about drivers, just after those using cell phones, are those drivers/passengers who don't/won't wear their seat belts.


When I was in high school (translated: teenager, dumb) I had a head-on collision while on the way to pick up a date. I was going too fast for the road conditions (two-lane road, dark, misty rain), came up behind a truck with no taillights, and hit a car in the other lane when I tried to get around it. I was in my parents' car, which like all cars of that vintage had no sea belts.

Luckily I got only a major cut on the head when I hit the passenger door (probably says something about the hardness of my head). Even more lucky was that no one else was hurt.


For a long time I had hair on my scalp which hid the scar. Obviously that's no longer the case.


When I bought my first car, seat belts were only an option not already installed as they are today. They were only lap belts, but they were the first thing I purchased and installed. As anyone who has ever ridden with me knows, I get downright religious about hooking up my belts and making sure my passengers do, even if we are only going around the block!


Over the years I have heard just about every excuse under the sun why people don't want to buckle up. Some of my favorites are:


"Seat belts wrinkle my dress.'' Of all people that one came from a lady whose husband was a safety engineer.


"I don't know how.'' Just how smart do you have to be to put one end into the other without a flight attendant telling you how?


"If I'm buckled up and have a wreck I might not get thrown clear. The car might catch on fire and I'd burn up.'' I wonder if they ever think about getting thrown clear and into the path of another car or how hard the concrete roadway can be when you hit it at 20-30 mph? How about the windshield you hit on the way out?


"I might get a stomach injury because of the belt.'' Bruises are usually a lot less permanent than dead!


Things that make sense to me.


Most cars are made of steel. While a wreck can obviously cause a lot of damage and your car get smashed in, the steel is still pretty good protection. I'm not sure about convertibles, but some do have roll bars.


The belts across one's chest (plus a deployed air bag) just might keep the steering column from acting like a spear as it gets driven into your chest. (If I had had one on when I had my wreck, I probably wouldn't have cut my head on the passenger door/window on my way out.)


I've heard some say that they don't need to buckle up because they're in the back seat. Drivers, remember who will be the first thing they hit on the way over the front seat!


After a wreck the police and newspaper always make a comment about whether or not the driver and passengers were wearing their seat belts.

In the large majority of cases, those that were may have been injured but they were alive. In the cases where they weren't, a fatality is almost always involved.


It just doesn't take that much time. As the old jingle said, "Buckle up for safety. Always buckle up!'' The life you save will probably be your own.

[pvfan]

Seat Belt Law is the stupidest law in America today. Not wearing your seat belt hurts only one person and thats you. If your old enough to drive your old enough to decide to wear your seat belt or not. I dont understand why you should have to wear it, some states dont require you to wear a helmet on a motorcycle yet you have to wear a seatbelt? Just doesn't make much sense to me, for those that wear it great but I'll keep on riding down the road without mine.

There are also those times where the seatbelt gets stuck and the car catches fire, thus you die a slow painful death.

I would rather die instantly not wearing a seatbelt, then to die slow and painful cause the damn seatbelt got stuck.

[starbuck]

the seatbelt will save your life many more times than it will lead to the cause of death.
As for the law, I think it is a great law that may save the life of someone I love. If you get killed by not wearing your seatbelt you not only just hurt yourself. Imagine the dispare your loved ones will go through for the REST OF THEIR LIVES knowing that putting a seatbelt could have totaly changed the outcome. To say it will only hurt you just totaly discounts anyone who loves you and would miss you. Imagine a child having to grow up without a parent for something so simple. A wife doing without her husband..................

[pvfan]

Thats true, but if your old enough to drive your old enough to understand the consequences for your actions. I dont like the government telling me what I have to do in regards to my own life and in the end my life is the only one that is in danger when I dont put that seatbelt on.

[SunTzu]

I'm for less government interference also but I'll play the devil's advocate...

Here's some info that refers to North Carolinas "Click it or Ticket "program .

"Since the advent of "Click It or Ticket", fatal and serious traffic-related injuries in North Carolina have been cut by 14 percent, resulting in a savings of $135 million in health care related costs. According to the North Carolina Department of Insurance, the state's auto insurers asked for approval of premiums totaling $33 million less than they would have requested if "Click It or Ticket" had not been instituted.

The nearly 35,000 checkpoints held across the state have resulted in the discovery of more than 65,000 criminal offenses, including fugitives from justice, firearms violations, felony drug violations, stolen vehicles and DWI. Officers are capturing criminals who could have been free today if not for high visibility enforcement of traffic laws. On top of that, in North Carolina, all traffic fines go to local schools. At $25 per seat belt violation, millions of dollars have been given to local school districts because of "Click It or Ticket."

[R0cketer]

Well its a law and if you don't want to put it on, don't. We have speed limit laws and if you are breaking them, you get caught, you get a ticket. Same idea.

I worked on the rescue for several years and I can say that there were wrecks where if people had not had their seat belts on, there is no doubt what would have happened to them, as in a few there was passengers who didn't have seatbelts on and their endings wasn't to nice. I won't go to the lie that I never had to unbuckle someone who had died, that's not true, but the odds are better. This isn't hollywood, people don't get throw from their car, tumble down hills, and mysteriously live through wrecks that would normally kill someone (or would have killed them if they had been in the car). I'm sure it happens, but if you have that happen, might as well give up on the lottery because you're one in 6.3 billion probably just happened.

I'm not for the government controlling everything but the seat belt is like speeding, you don't want to wear it, more power to you, you don't want to follow the speed limit, more power to you, but when you get caught, don't complain.

If you're in a bad enough wreck where you are going to die, odds are seat belt isn't going to matter. The problem is the wrecks where the person could have lived and doesn't due to being tossed out. I hate putting mine on but I hate dying worse, so the lesser of the two evils is what I'll take.

And yes your car could catch on fire, and you would be trapped. You also could be thrown out of the car, the car when it hit the first time ruptures its gas tank, spills gas all around and when it ignites you still get burnt up. You know what though, if I was involved in a car wreck that had fire involved, I'd rather them know where to look for me, and maybe get me out before I died as opposed to being tossed out lay there dying a slow death. I mean neither option is good but if you see a car over the hill, where do you first look, on the bank, 10 foot to the left, over there behind the car 8 foot in shrubs or in the car?

When someone not wearing a seatbelt wrecks and dies, everyone says "had they been wearing that seatbelt they would still be here today"

How can anyone prove that, usually when people wreck and die it is a perty darn nasty, seatbelt or not alot of drivers die when they shouldn't have been driving in the first place.

Guys don't crucify me just yet. Not my thoughts but those from a colum i read. Just thought i would post it.

[imported_Counts]

Hmmm Not hurting anyone but yourself? True if you are in a single vehicle accident how ever if you are hit by another vehicle and causes a secondary accident because the first accident knocked you out from behind the wheel then not wearing your seatbelt would hurt someone else.

As far as the car catching on fire all I have to say while it could happen I have never seen it outside of TV or the Movies however I have seen Dozens of accidents.

In my younger days I did not always ware my seatbelt and by pure chance I was wearing it the day I flipped my car 4 times I came out of it with a nasty burse across my chest and shoulder where my seatbelt caught me I am sure I would have went through the windshield if I had not been wearing it. less than two years later I lost a cousion in a crash(not wearing his seatbelt) that same year two guys I went to HS with were in a crash neither were wearing there seatbelt one died the other has to use a cain because of his injuries.

When it comes down to it even if you do not respect your life enough to buckle up think of your family and friends attending your closed casket funeral and ask yourself whether you would be the only one getting hurt.