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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To not understand why people don't wear seatbelts

134 replies

QueenSconetta · 29/02/2012 14:12

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.

OP posts:

Birdsgottafly · 29/02/2012 14:58

Rule-If you read my post i said that there are places that i don't wear them. There are places were accidents won't happen and especially when you are driving at 5-20 mph.

The senario that you are describing wouldn't happen, were i choose not to wear them. I always wear one when it is me driving,so i could keep control over the car, i have been in major accidents, all caused by real knobheads.

This is a popular subject for MN, but bring up not having a fire guard,or leaving a baby in the house on it's own and the opinion changes.

Original poster

QueenSconetta · 29/02/2012 14:58

You don't many people doing that now do you Bun

OP posts:

Original poster

QueenSconetta · 29/02/2012 15:00

Don't see I mean

OP posts:

DerbysKangaskhan · 29/02/2012 15:03

The seat belt doesn't stretch far enough? (had this happen with a group in a taxi, I think it's belts were defective as none of the adults could get theirs on - other than the driver - as they wouldn't stretch).

Lueji · 29/02/2012 15:17

It really annoyed me that ex wouldn't wear a seatbelt.
I tried to explain to him that DS and I (at the time) didn't want him dead (how things change...) or not being able to walk.

According to him, the airbag was enough.

I don't particularly like it, but often forget it's there. If you wear it all the time, it becomes second nature.
Thankfully, DS is very keen on using it.

I insist that people on the back wear seatbelts (not fond of being killed by one of them projecting to the front), and, even in quiet areas, who knows what's coming towards us?

LyingWitchInTheWardrobe2726 · 29/02/2012 15:22

What don't you understand, OP? There are many reasons why people don't wear them - some legal, some not. I don't wear one.

takingiteasy · 29/02/2012 15:27

I've only had one accident in my car, round the corner from my house (very quiet residential area) a man in a pick up truck slammed his brakes on and reveresed into me for some unknown reason (he'd spotted something worth nicking in a garden), I was stationary and he was doing about 10mph backwards.

So where are these places that accidents don't happen? Places like that? Round the corner from your own home?

My only other near misses have involved idiots flying out of parking spaces in car parks. Again very slow speeds but sharp braking.

Original poster

QueenSconetta · 29/02/2012 15:28

LWITW I guess that is mainly a turn of phrase. To me the reasons to wear one are so overwhelming

OP posts:

Bunbaker · 29/02/2012 15:34

"There are places were accidents won't happen and especially when you are driving at 5-20 mph."

Utter nonsense. The accident I witnessed on Saturday was in slow moving traffic. The car that hit the boy couldn't have been moving at more than 10 miles an hour. The point with accidents is that they are unexpected and unforeseen.

My car got hit two years ago by someone reversing out of their drive. My car was stationery.

Why do you think you are above the law LyingWitch?

Boomerwang · 29/02/2012 15:37

I feel weirdly vulnerable if I don't do up my seatbelt, especially if I'm the one driving.

I was with someone once who used to do the driving off and then belting up thing. I really don't get that, isn't it more difficult to do when you're trying to steer, change gear and look around you at the same time?

LyingWitchInTheWardrobe2726 · 29/02/2012 15:37

QueenSconetta... Fair enough, it's the law of the land anyway. I must walk around in a cloud, I guess, because I just don't care what other people do or risk to their own person.

I'm legally exempt, Bunbaker... sorry to spoil your fun though, eh?

Bunbaker · 29/02/2012 15:39

Oh, that's OK then.

Original poster

QueenSconetta · 29/02/2012 15:42

I am just an interested observer I guess. with a varied wardrobe of judgey pants but none for this particular occasion as makes v little difference to me

OP posts:

RuleBritannia · 29/02/2012 15:43

May I ask why you are legally exempt from wearing a seatbelt, LyingWitch. Are you a bus driver or taxi driver? Or something else?

SuchProspects · 29/02/2012 15:43

People don't wear them because they think other things are of more value to them than the decrease in risk. I think it's odd and a very U to not to understand that not everyone has the same priorities as you.

You put yourself at risk every time you go in a car, but no one claims people are being selfish for taking a car journey that isn't a necessity. People put themselves at risk when the go skiing, or rock climbing or when they don't do sufficient exercise. People put themselves at risk when they consume too much of the wrong things, dye their hair, overexpose themselves to the sun or don't expose themselves enough to the sun. All these things could lead to early death or serious ill health. None of them are necessary. They all could potentially devastate families. But people choose to do them (or fail to avoid doing them) for all sorts of reasons, some significant and well thought out, some trivial and on a whim. It's very human. I don't really see not wearing a seat belt as any different.

LyingWitchInTheWardrobe2726 · 29/02/2012 15:44

It's a medical exemption, RuleBritannia, unhealed fractured sternum.

YonWhaleFish · 29/02/2012 15:47

Wear it or don't, I won't have any sympathy for you if you get hurt or die in an accident due to not wearing it.

I will have sympathy for your families tho.

Original poster

QueenSconetta · 29/02/2012 15:49

I didn't claim anyone was selfish on this occasion

OP posts:

LyingWitchInTheWardrobe2726 · 29/02/2012 15:54

I doubt the hurt/deceased or their families would give two hoots whether you were sympathetic or not, YonWhaleFish, being a random stranger and all. You'd better make sure you get the low down before you type a meaningless platitude, hadn't you?

albertswearengen · 29/02/2012 16:02

If you don't wear a seatbelt and have an accident it's not just you and your immediate family that suffer. I'm sure the person in the other car would be thrilled to carry the knowledge of your serious injury or death round with them for the rest of their lives, whether it was their fault or not Plus I doubt it's very pleasant for the police, the firefighters and the paramedics who have to scrape you off the tarmac.

SuchProspects · 29/02/2012 16:07

Albertswearengen surely that's the same for all serious injury or death in a road accident?

YonWhaleFish · 29/02/2012 16:07

Seriously, I don't care if you die because you don't wear a seatbelt, it's not a meaningless platitude. What do you know about me and MY history?

How do you know my son/brother/aunt maud didn't die because they weren't wearing a seatbelt, flew through the windscreen and their head cracked open like an egg on the road? And left a devastated family behind them because of their selfish choice?

Maybe you should have a think on that. I understand in your case you're exempt...but peddling it as "just a choice" (by that I am not targeting you) and not an important thing to do? Seatbelts save lives, it's fact.

TalkinPeace2 · 29/02/2012 16:14

I will not drive in a car with people not wearing seatbelts.
Have been known to pull the handbrake and get out
or if driving pull over to the side of the road till they put them on.

Morons.

Bunbaker · 29/02/2012 16:14

If someone was sat in the seat behind me I would insist that they wore a seatbelt, or ask them to swap places so that they didn't injure anyone else if there was an accident. I don't think that is an unreasonable request.

YonWhaleFish · 29/02/2012 16:15

think.direct.gov.uk/seat-belts.html

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