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. I find it an automatic reflex. We went on safari and the guide kept on laughing at us because we would have to unclip to stand up and see things but honestly we just did it out of habit.

I have to drive up and down rural tracks, getting in and out to open gates and have to put belt on or the thing beeps away at me. It’s a pain! It also beeps with my little terrier sitting on the front passenger seat so yes I always use them but wouldn’t normally in this situation. If i remember I fasten it behind me but it’s not especially comfortable

If you have ever had a car accident while wearing one, you wouldn’t have to ask. (If you’ve ever had a car accident while not wearing one, well…. you may not be around to ask). I had a nasty one - got hit so hard the guy flipped my car upside down - yes I had a belt on and yes it saved my life, so I appreciate I’m biased!

It's interesting where (generalising) mostly older people seem to be less bothered/strict about seatbelts "because they didn't grow up with them".....but it's not a recent law, it's probably been the law for about 40 years, so that's likely at least half someone's lifetime.
(I can see the point if you're driving slowly on rural land for example and not likely to encounter another vehicle)
Smartphones and the Internet have been around a much shorter period of time but most people would use those despite not growing up with them.

You need to hang out with more intelligent people op.

Possibly … if your daughter got killed because she was wearing hers and couldn’t get free in time before being killed by a truck
i do wear mine but sometimes I dont want to because im aware that she would probably be alive if she could have even moved over towards the front passenger seat out of the way.
mostly they save you but not always!
my best friend and husband were on a single width rural country road when a tractor came towards them it drove ontop of their car they were able to move towards the middle of the car as weren’t wearing seatbelts. They survived without injury. With seatbelts they would both be dead
i hear you all re seatbelts and im aware they do mostly save lives. Just also aware of the times they haven’t and the grief and pain as a mother. i now live with 24/7

100% yes and if I was driving everyone else in the car would have to as well.

I agree.

On Friday there was a crash at the end of my road. The mess from driving at 30mph was horrific.

I can't get over the stupidity of some drivers who underestimate how badly other drivers drive. You can be the safest driver in the world tootling along within a 30 mph speed limit when another vehicle could slam into you from a side road or crash into you headlong because they are on the wrong side of the road.

The complacancy of posters who won't wear seat belts is breathtakingly idiotic.

I'm so sorry for your loss. I'm the mum of a daughter and can only begin to understand the pain that you have been through.

Your post hasn't changed my mind because I know that seat belts save far more lives than otherwise but such a devastating personal tragedy is bound to make you wary of them.

You are funny.

Yes.

Skulls break remarkably easily. Not to mention nacks and spines.

Having a 60kg weight (rear passenger) smash into the back of a seat, breaking the occupants neck or spine, then having the rear passenger ejected through one of the windows and onto the carriageway, subsequently being hit by another vehicle, is something I would rather avoid.

And being thrown onto an exploding airbag, having my nose broken, front teeth knocked out (people have lost eyes) or the side of my face burned off from the friction with the air bag, is also something I try to avoid.

Thank you, your kind words do mean a lot lot to me
certainly not trying to sway anyone as i feel exactly the same and i do wear my seatbelt because i know in my heart on balance it makes so much sense. My experiences are definitely not the norm.
i was answering the question ”why wouldn’t you” And I’m tempted sometimes not to but I resist because on balance it’s just not sensible.

I’ve not RTFT, but absolutely always wear a belt.

when I was a teenager, my dad was in hospital for an eye op. The man in the bed opposite was likely to lose his sight - he’d gone forward instead of reversing on his own drive, sudden enough impact to throw him through his windscreen. I hate it if anyone starts driving before I’ve got the buckle done up.

So you travel with your kids in the car without wearing a seat belt? You do know this makes you a loose and dangerous projectile should there be a collison or you suddenly have to brake for any reason? Your body weight could easily kill or injure one of your children. Even if you don't care about yourself, why would you risk their safety for a simple act that takes 2 seconds? Do you think you're being clever or rebellious or something?

Projectile myself from where? The drivers seat into a child? I don't think that's possible.

Not being clever/stupid or whatever other insults people want to throw. Just saying for that tiny journey I'd probably not bother. Fully prepared to make my own risk assessment of the situation.

Is this hypothetical or do you actually do this?

You aren't doing "a risk assessment". That risk assessment was taken by multiple agencies and made law in 1983 for extremely good reasons. You're just being lazy or god knows what really. The law says that everyone must wear a seatbelt no matter how short the journey. But you know better so crack on. They're your kids.

You can't argue with stupid.

Obviously I do now because it's the law. But if it wasn't, I wouldn't bother for that particular journey. I'm driving 500 yds at most 15mph. So yes I am making my own risk assessment.

100000% i hate going abroad and using Taxis without. I freak out so badly. But I had an RTA on a bus in the UK and woneered why their was no seatbelts I sustained a very bad injury that took me 6 years to recover from as I lifted out of my seat and flew into the panel behind the driver. I no longer use buses.

But the effort of putting a seatbelt on is minimal..it's not time consuming or taxing. So you have weighed up that the risk is not worth the effort of putting it on? But the effort is so small its virtually irrelevant...and the risk is greater than the effort involved...so I'd say your risk assessment is flawed

But if the other person who collides into you is doing 30 or 40 or 50 the combined impact is not 15. It would be minimum 45 and maximum 65!!! So that logic is flawed.

Have I said I know better? I've said being brutally honest, I wouldn't bother on such a short low speed journey. Similarly when driving on rural private land at low speed I wouldn't bother especially when driving agricultural vehicles. Same when driving 5mph on a private lane leaving a relatives house.

Insulting people is a sure fire way to get them to agree with you.

The law would be too complicated to follow if it went into every type of journey/ vehicle/ speed/ type of road/ weather conditions as to whether seatbelt needed. So the law makes it mandated for all occasions. However, they are situations where, were you to risk assess, the risk of you coming to harm would be way lower than in another situation. The risk of a fatal accident happening are extremely low anyway but the consequences could be extreme harm, which is why cars now come with belts, but it is still a very low risk, so in some circumstances I would not consider someone bonkers for not putting on their belt.

There's always a risk when you get behind a wheel and there aren't any mitigating circumstances. It's absolutely impossible to do a risk assessment in a moving vehicle. There are too many random variables such as other road users! A car could come speeding from nowhere on any road or lane. A horse could get spooked, a child could run out in front of you. Anything, absolutely anything could cause you to suddenly apply the brakes. Failure to wear a seat belt is not "doing a risk assessment", it's taking a chance - which are two very different things.