To want to get out of the car and bang all the people who dont wear seat belts up against their window screen to show them what it would be like to crash ?

Kelly 1978 - I put on my seatbelt whilst putting my keys in the ignition. This is much easier than trying to do it whilst driving and doesn't take any longer.

MY FIL refuses to wear a belt, when he is driving, I can't stop him, but as soon as he gets in my car, I turn round and say 'belt please' he normally grumbles at bit and then I say 'if you hit me in an accident you will kill me' That normally shuts him up. He reckons that the belt rubs his scar from his triple bypass

I can remember seeing a girl who had gone through a windscreen years ago - she had a zigzag of stitch scars all down her face, I have been obsessive about seat belts since!!

I posted a while ago that MIL always gets in with the children and says "i'll just hold the belt across me" and I tell her in no uncertain terms that if we crash the weight of her could kill my children so she will fasten it please

A new family over the road has just moved in a he has a works vanm Citreon Berlingo. Its a 2 seater van with space in the back but with 2 small windows in the back.

On my life he has two deck chairs in the back of it and his children aged about 9 & 13 are ferried around sat on them and the parents in the front .

I know they are too big to be in boosters but proper seats would be nice.

Got a very quick repsonse from DTR:

Dear Lucie,

I'm afraid that we are not going to do more publicity at the moment on child car seats. Our budget this year is being spent on new mobile phone legislation, a new drink drive campaign, driving for work and child road safety and parents (which will cover all aspects of being a good example to your children, including using seatbelts).

With kind regards,

Glyn

So that's cool - even though it won't specifically focus on the exact matter being discussed, it'll still be generally covered through child road safety.

Unreasonable. Why do you feel so very angry on their behalf?

I also think much of the false information about belts causing damage is a misinterpretation of the person invovled.

eg. What is actually said is "The injuries you suffered are caused by the seatbelt. However, without the belt you would be dead."
What the injured party most likely hears "The injuries you suffered are caused by the seatbelt." And thus the myth perpetuates.

I have just emailed the www.thinkroadsafety.gov.uk campaign who publicise everything road safety on behalf of the DTR (Dept for Transport as it now gone back to being!)
The DTR website is good and has all of their policies on road safety etc and the thinkroadsafety website is great for info, ordering posters for schools/activity booklets and emailing your opinions to.
I mentioned mumsnet when I emailed just so they could tell the scale of opinion. They did say though that they get lots of emails so it could be 2 weeks before receiving a reply! It's the government - we didn't expect anything else!

Once I drove (sick as a parrot) from Camrbridge to Huntingdon (about 20mins) wihtout strapping DD in (she was 1). I nearly died when I realised and pulled off at a little chef while I composed myself........and strapped her in! It is very easy to do. Now she tells me too "mummy do you remember that time when you forgot to strap me in?"

I once forgot to strap ds2 into his seat . i realised after a few minutes though but my boys have never let me forget it.
'mummy, do you remember when you forgot to strap me in...'
Yes, I do, all too well. I double check every time now.

LOL at the safari park thing!
I have to say, much as I disagree about not belting up, a friend had a really accident where he was paralysed from the waist down (he was only about 20) and they did say it was caused by the lap belt bit of the belt. Ithink it cannot be underestimated about putting the lap bit over the tops of your thighs, rather than around your tummy (like my nan!)

Oh Wallace, definitely at man-logic. I have the opposite story of talking to a policeman after I crashed my mum's car, who said 'I won't even ask you if you were wearing your seatbelt, you wouldn't be stood here talking to me if you weren't'. The windscreen was ten feet away from the car, I guess with the greater momentum of a human body I'd have been 20+ feet away.

DD's nursery had a road safety person in last week, telling them all how they mustn't cross roads on their own, and they must always be strapped in in a car ... I think she already had the message though, she got quite upset about sitting on my lap whilst crawling round a safari park at 2mph and demanded to go back in her seat.

my dh doesn't wear a seat belt. He was in a car crash years ago - he wasn't wearing a seatbelt and was thrown from the car. He was told that if he had had a seatbelt on he would be dead.

Therefore man-logic means: seatbelt=dead

Kelly please keep yourself safe too - your DC need you.

I'm usually running late, and it is an automatic, so it's like like I have to faff around with gears and try to belt up. I know I should do it beforehand, it is a bad habit.

Kelly, surely you're distracted from driving if you're fiddling with your belt at the same time. DP does this and it drives me mad.

When I was a passenger in a hire car abroad in a country where seat belts are not the norm, and the car wasn't fitted with them, we had a car crash at approx 20mph or less. I hit the windscreen and ended up with concussion and whiplash, and badly bruised shins where my legs bashed the footwell. If the car had been going any faster I would have gone through that windscreen and very likely died or been seriously injured. I would NEVER get in a car without seatbelts now, for any reason, and I always put it on before setting off. It can't do it's job if you aren't wearing it, even for a moment.

There's no reason why your belt shouldn't be on before you set off is there? Not critisising but someone could hit you just a few metres from your house.

I thought of this thread today when I pulled out. I tend to pull out then put my belt on. A playdate last week was yelling at me to put my belt on I never ever go before the kdis are all strapped in though.