If it wasn’t the law would you wear a seat belt

[despairofbadscience]

Now I think the obvious answer to this is yes! However someone asked it a a party last night, and quite a few people so no or not on short journeys, maybe only in the front seat (type answers).

Really surprised me

Yes because I remember the public safety adverts. The one with the boy, and his mum crashes and dies because he's not wearing a seat belt in the back. Just like pylons scare the fuck out of me and how I'll never take a short cut across railway lines.

I've also been in a 70mph car crash and think how lucky I was that I had my seat belt on.

Yes.

A reminder of someone who in 1997 did not wear a seat belt when travelling in Paris, Diana, Princess of Wales.

Yes, I would always wear a seatbelt.

I was in a taxi the other day (not in the UK) and the driver had one of those clips in his seatbelt buckle so the "fasten seatbelt" alarm wouldn't sound. He then very weirdly had his seatbelt over his body with the end in his pocket?! It must have been attached to something in his pocket to keep it from falling out. I really couldn't fathom why he didn't just do it up properly.

You got out of the wrong side of bed this morning! If you go on a long distance bus trip, you use the toilet so walk up and down, and it is the sort of thing I notice. National express also has cameras that show on the screen so it's very obvious that most people don't wear them. The danger of flying through the air and killing another passenger is much lower on a bus so no skin offmy nose

Yes I would. My dad paid for the optional extra of seat belts in the rear of the car sometimes in the 80s, so I've always worn one, even when it wasn't the law.

He was in an accident where wearing a seatbelt saved his life so it's been drummed in.

I can just about remember those adverts where an unbelted rear passenger kills the person infront, and themselves in an accident.

😂 what you said is based on assumption, you would not be able to tell whether everyone on the bus is wearing a seatbelt, only the people you pass. Plus I usually have a coat covering my waist so you wouldn’t be able to tell I’m wearing one. So you’re wrong to say hardly anyone.

Oh god yes my mum would do that to not get her clothes creased.

No she’s right, a lot of people just don’t wear them. Probably because it’s a newer thing than car ones. People probably equate it with a bus where you don’t.

My friends car was written off while he was doing 20 in a residential street. A van came speeding around the corner doing 40 and smashed straight into him.

Same as my mum!

Then I think of that advert that’s already been mentioned, where the son is sat behind his mum and flies into her seat, and I think how selfish my mum can be. She will pretend it’s on by pulling it over her a bit. I end up telling her off like a child.

I disagree. You need evidence to back up your claim.

If a seatbelt is avaliable, I'll wear it.
DF had rear seatbelts from the mid-80s. DM had rear seatbelts from the early 90s.
I remember in the mid-80s, DM braked sharply and I slid off the seat into the footwell. No impacts, no harm done, but it just wouldn't have happened if seat belts were there.

I have travelled where seatbelts aren't a thing. Fortunately it's either on coaches which tend to give better passenger protection than a car, or has been in countries where the traffic either barely moves or the roads are pretty empty.

I feel weirdly naked without one on. The only reason I wouldn't while driving is while solely manouvering off-road e.g. on my own driveway and not going on to a public highway so I'm only moving for a minute or so, turning a lot for observations, no traffic and not getting past a walking/running speed.

Crazy right? What a thing to be rebellious about. Actually, I can’t not wear a seatbelt. I won’t start the car until everyone, front and back, are buckled up. I leave cab doors open until my seatbelt is on as the driver can’t drive until I do 🤣

Yes I certainly would - especially as a friend didn't wear hers on a very short trip, had a freak accident and was killed. Had she been wearing a belt she probably would have escaped with minor injuries.

No I wouldn’t wear one all the time if I didn’t have to. I’ve been in and out of older cars which don’t have seatbelts all my life so don’t feel unsafe when I don’t have one on.

People have been asked for their opinions! Why suggest someone with a different opinion to you it's a joke. Some of us grew up at a time when seatbelts were not compulsory and yes, were are now in the habit, but I probably would not bother for short journeys at low speed. Why is that so shocking??

I am old and if you had asked me that when they were first introduced I would have said no, now I would say yes. To be fair there is more traffic now.
There were also always stories about people who were "thrown clear and would have died if they had been strapped in".

It's shocking because there have been many, many campaigns to educate people on this. We should ALL know better now.

I only use coaches for school trips so I always make sure that the children are belted up and then sit down and put my own seatbelt on.

I wonder why buses don't have seat belts. They are involved in far fewer crashes than cars but I should imagine that passengers would still be at risk if they were in a crash.

It's shocking because people still get injured or killed when driving short distances at very low speeds - usually because of the dangerous behaviour of other drivers.

There have been many examples on this thread.

I am genuinely shocked by the minority of people on this thread who are too stupid to realise what could happen to them if they are too lazy to spend a couple of seconds putting their seatbelt on.

Yes. My mother hated them however. When they became law, she was at that menopausal stage when she was constantly having hot flushes and hated anything constricting her, so that was the reason why she avoided them where possible until she got told off by a police officer one day!

It was a very easy law to introduce. The authorities were worried about how to enforce it, but since almost everyone had at least third hand experience of going through windscreens, the public saw sense in the law, especially for their children.
It's far likely to be men who don't wear them (they tend to be naturally less cautious).
Although I often get lazy and don't wear them when driving around town in under developed countries - too hot!

It feels wrong not wearing a seat belt when I just move my car from the drive to the road and vice versa! I often do infact wear a belt for that, but occasionally don’t. It feels weird not to do it.

My DM enforced seatbelts for all in the backseats long before it even became law (1989 for kids….1991 for adults….I just checked!). As kids we had these removable bright orange harnesses that we always, without fail, had to use. Even if we were having a lift with a friend….the seatbelts were taken from her car and put in the car we were travelling in.

Yes definitely and I'm from the times when we didn't have to

Probably not.I still forget sometimes (not strictly enforced and a fairly meh attitude where I grew up and lived until I was 23) if I’m on auto pilot. It’s the beep in the cars or brain alarm of “shit! I have to! “ that reminds me to put it on. Somehow, even after 14 years it hasn’t become an ingrained thing.