To not understand why people don't wear seatbelts

[QueenSconetta]

I just don't get why you wouldn't, yet so many people seem not to.

Also people who drive away then steer with their knees while they put their belt on. My DP is one if these.

YABU. It makes them look cool!

Your dp steers with his knees whilst putting his belt on?

Not a right lot I can say to that really.
As to others, well that's their business I suppose, but your dp is breaking the law and I hope he gets caught before his recklessness injures anyone.

Some people are invincible. Didn't you know?

They're easy to spot - they don't wear seatbelts, they walk into the road without looking and the walk behind reversing cars in supermarket carparks without missing a step.

just complete stupidity, same as people that dont strap their children in properly/at all...

In Armenia no-one wears a seatbelt. Apparently if you wear a seatbelt, the police will think you're Up To Something and will stop you and fine you. For wearing a seatbelt.

Well sort of yes I think one handed rather than knees prob but still same sort of thing. He drives away then puts his belt on once he is a few yards down the road - it drives me mad as is unnecessary to my mind.

Just came to mind as I just saw someone drive away with no seatbelt and no apparent move to put it on.

I don't get it either. A school friend went through a car windscreen years ago because she wasn't wearing a seat belt and has the facial scars to show for it. She was evangelical about seat belts after her accident. I feel naked if I haven't got my seat belt on.

I don't always bother putting a seat belt on, until my DP has a go because he will get fined, also.

They save lives, yes i know, but they are also uncomfortable, if you are small. There are places that i would always wear a seat belt, places that i don't bother putting one on, unless i think the police may be passing.

I grew up not wearing seat belts, or even a helmet on the back of my fathers motorbike, so that has influenced me.

I am disgusted by deliberate bad driving though, including steering with your knees. Bad driving has the potential to disable people, the death rate may be falling, but injuries are not.

Some accidents cannot be avoided, but most can.

It's risk assessment and only i will suffer, unlike not having safety equipment in the home etc, which is often argued against on MN.

Me too Bumbaker, would feel wierd and uncomfortable driving without it.

Some people are just knob heads!
my DH quite often doesn't wear one and MIL doesn't and it makes me so mad!
She has stupidly drilled into him that its safer not to - apparently if you are in an accident, and not wearing a belt, you will be thrown clear of the wreckage.

Her theory is based on a friend who was in a mini that crashed in the 70's when they were at school.
Everyone who was wearing a belt died in the crash, other than her friend who wasn't wearing a belt and was thrown clear out the windscreen and somehow by pure luck and chance survived.
According to her, this means belts kill you, so you shouldn't wear one.
Daft bat has drilled this into her son (my DH) all his life so he thinks its ok not to wear one.
That said, he has got used to automatically wearing one now due to my constant nagging and the fact that the car beeps at him till he fastens it

MIL does have warped sense of normality though - this 1970's crash in a mini was also the reason that 'All mini's are deathtraps and DH is not allowed to buy a 2009 BMW Mini Cooper S for this reason' when he was buying one. Stupid woman.

Just to add i put a seat belt on when i sit in the back, because i know that i will kill the person sitting in front of me, in a shunt.

I am very small and don't find them uncomfortable, but each to their own.

I also don't wholly agree that only you will suffer. Only you may be injured (unless you are in the back), but that is quite different.

Because they are idiots and totally selfish too.

I shudder to think at the damage an unbelted rear seat passenger could inflict by colliding with the driver or front seat passenger in a crash.

Was that me QS? I filled up at a petrol station and drove off without putting my seatbelt on because I was going to the supermarket attached to the petrol station.

In some instances, people have been saved by NOT wearing seatbelts as they've been thrown out of harms way. But in any case, it's still not really your concern I guess. It'd be different if they didn't strap their kids in as that boils down to neglect, but an adult makes choices about his/her safety and if they want to fly through their windscreens at top speed in a crash then it's their prerogative to do so.

Get your dp one of those annoying cars that bleeps until everyone has their seatbelt on.

Cross post Birds.

BirdGottaFly

What a foolish, selfish person you are by not wearing a seatbelt. If you are badly injured in a road accident, it will be your fault and you will cause agony and desperation for your DP, parents and others close to you incluyding any DCs you might have. You could cause expense and life upheaval for your family if you need day care and would cost the rest of us taxpayers thousands just to keep you going.

When I passed my driving test there were no seat belts at all except in aircraft and no helmets used for motorcycling either. Those who do not wear them have found out to their cost. Why don't you obey the law and do what is expected of you in every day life? The majory of the rest of us do.

My car is one of those, it even beeps.if the passenger hasn't got a belt on.

You are right re personal choice I guess, and I will certainly not intervene with any other adults, unless in my car, but I just still find it strange.

No Rhubarb, not you, was leaving a railway station.

Well they might do what you dp does and put it on once they are driving on the main road, thus endangering people by fiddling with their belt.

I don't find it particularly strange. People are lazy and go around with this "it'll never happen to me" attitude. I get much more riled at people who are on their phones than people who don't put belts on. Because those who don't wear belts, generally speaking, hurt only themselves in a crash whereas the idiots who take phone calls/do their make-up/read the mapbook are responsible for many many deaths every single year.

"but they are also uncomfortable, if you are small"

You can get gadgets that adjust the seat belt if it cuts into your neck. If you don't wear a seat belt what kind of message are you sending your children. You might think that you or your partner are good drivers, but what about the unexpected? What if a dog or a child runs out in front of the car and you do an emergency stop?

I witnessed a child being knocked down by a car on Saturday. I felt as sorry for the driver as the child because he just ran out from nowhere. You just don't know in advance that this kind of thing won't happen to you.

Yes I agree Rhubarb, there are much worse things to do while driving I guess, x.

Bunbaker how awful. Hope all ok, x.

I suspect because they are not the norm in Pakistan - alot of people locally are from Pakistan/or asian heritage. If you've not grown up wearing seatbelts it is not second nature to put one on.

Large number of private hire taxis that are also used as family cars - child doen't need a seat in a private hire taxi so the line is blurred.

Overcrowding of vehicles - too many people for seats.

Also seems to be a macho trend for young males to drive flashy cars with no seatbelt on - high powered prestige cars are also hired for weddings and driven around town. Don't think I've ever seen the occupants with a seabelt on TBH.

I hate wearing a seatbelt it is uncomfy. I do wear one for safety reasons but am really glad if I don't have to private roads for example and then don't.

I have never found a seatbelt uncomfortable. I have always worn one so it is an automatic thing to do - it just feels so wrong not to, like going out in a flippy skirt on a windy day with no knickers on!

Remember "clunk click every trip"

Remember, clunk click, you're a dick!

Sorry, we used to sing that version to my brother as kids!