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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To wonder who doesn't wear a seat belt and why!

180 replies

FunkyKingston · 02/05/2019 00:01

metro.co.uk/2019/04/30/seat-belt-laws-become-lot-tougher-9357163/

It seems ludicrous to me that not wearing a seat belt doesn't carry at least a three points or even six points when not doing so selfishly and recklesly endangers the lives of others. Thankfully i don't knlw anyone in real life who'd ve as daft to not use the seatbelts fitted.

However, even if they don't give a shit about other people what kind of idiot isn't interested in saving their own skin in the event of a crash, when the effectiveness of seat belts in preventing death and serious injury is beyond doubt?

Does anyone here not use seatbelts or know anyone who is militantly anti seatbelt and what rationale do they use?

OP posts:
IntoValhalla · 02/05/2019 08:15

I lost two friends in a car accident when I was a teenager. We were told that had one of them not been wearing a seat belt, she likely would have been seriously injured, but would have had a better chance of survival. The injury that was listed as her cause of death was directly related to the position of the seatbelt on her chest/neck Sad
I went through a phase for a about a year after that where I was really paranoid about wearing a seat belt and refused because that’s what I’d been told had killed my friend.
I got over that, and I can see now how irrational my thinking was then - obviously what happened to my friend was sheer bad luck, and seat belts have saved way more lives than they’ve taken.

TK421 · 02/05/2019 08:16

Taxi drivers are exempt because they carry strangers in their vehicle on a regular basis. The risk of a stranger trying to strangle them with their seatbelt is greater than the risk of accident.

DrWhy · 02/05/2019 08:17

Taxi drivers are exempt (in case a passenger attacks them and they need to get out quickly apparently) but our company policy is that everyone on site or driving anywhere for our company must wear them. So if a taxi driver wants to drive for our company they have to wear a seatbelt, the gatehouse won’t open the barrier for them if they aren’t wearing one, if they undo it once you get offsite you are meant to ask them to put it back on or stop the journey and let you out and then call another taxi. It sounds crazy but I think people have actually done it a couple of times and I haven’t had a taxi driver argue with me about wearing a seatbelt for years.

flitwit99 · 02/05/2019 08:18

Taxi drivers are exempt because they carry strangers in their vehicle on a regular basis. The risk of a stranger trying to strangle them with their seatbelt is greater than the risk of accident

Wow. I had no idea.

Acis · 02/05/2019 08:19

I knew someone who was the claimant in one of the early cases about whether failure to wear a seatbelt would be contributory negligence - they found that it was. Her face was a network of scars as a result of going through the windscreen. It really brought home to me that it was just not a risk worth taking.

Prequelle · 02/05/2019 08:19

I swear to god if I got killed by some selfish fucker not wearing a seatbelt I would come back and haunt them

lurker101 · 02/05/2019 08:19

I always wear my seatbelt because of this road safety advert - I’d recommend everyone checks it out m.youtube.com/watch?v=jaTmf3B9xVg

DrWhy · 02/05/2019 08:21

Oh and I lived overseas for a couple of years where the wearing of seatbelts was unusual and children’s car seats virtually unknown. The company I work for had the same policy of requiring seatbelts and they used to rent a machine called a ‘seatbelt convincer’ once a year for a big safety event, it simulated a really low speed crash - like 15 or 20 mph with a seatbelt on and people could feel how big a bump that was.

Gwenhwyfar · 02/05/2019 08:22

"Lots of people I know don't use them in the back seats. "

I almost always do, but there have been times when we've been 3 in the back and it's been so hard to find the belt and so embarrassing to be touching the other people so much to get my belt into its place that I have given up once or twice.

It used to be quite common for back seat ones not to work as well, wouldn't come out properly or something, but that hasn't happened to me for a few years now.

I don't always have the belt on when I'm travelling by coach as I sometimes lie across the seats.

toomuchtooold · 02/05/2019 08:27

My parents never wanted to use them - I think it was a combination of being used to not wearing them when they were younger, and having trouble getting them to click in - neither of my parents drove so they didn't get into the way of doing it. My dad would go so far as to hold his seatbelt over his lap as if I wouldn't notice - specially once the car started beeping...

fortifiedwithtea · 02/05/2019 08:32

I got picked up by a female taxi driver , she didn’t have her belt on. I mentioned it and she informed me taxi drivers are exempt. In our area taxi drivers have been attacked and robbed. She feels safer by not wearing a belt to aid a quick escape.

I feel very uncomfortable with her not wearing a belt. Especially as a few days later I was in a taxi , the quick reactions of a different driver saved us from an accident. Even so had I not been wearing a belt I would have been flung forward onto the driver. It shook me up.

If /when I get the non belt wearing driver again, would I be unreasonable to ask her to wear it or refuse her taxi and ask for another driver?

Damntheman · 02/05/2019 08:34

Taxi drivers in Norway have to wear seatbelts at least, it's been law since 08 :)

I personally feel intensely uncomfortable without a seatbelt and won't travel in a car if I can't have one. My FIL likes to try to argue about putting his seat belt on (farmer..) but I refuse to go anywhere until it's on so I have always won that particular argument.

It's just madness not to!

Fluffycloudland77 · 02/05/2019 08:34

Dhs dad refused to wear one once when he was sat behind dh, I stopped the car until he fastened his belt.

I won’t have anyone risking my husbands safety.

Damntheman · 02/05/2019 08:35

Fortified I would consider it totally okay for you to request that the driver wears their belt and if they say no then get a different taxi. That's your choice :)

RottnestFerry · 02/05/2019 08:36

Well... if you are in the UK, your car hasn't passed an MOT then. Unless it's a classic car pre 1960s???

Legislation only required seat belts to be fitted in to the front outboard seats of cars from 1968.

My car was made in 1955.

RottnestFerry · 02/05/2019 08:39

The company I work for had the same policy of requiring seatbelts and they used to rent a machine called a ‘seatbelt convincer’ once a year for a big safety event, it simulated a really low speed crash - like 15 or 20 mph with a seatbelt on and people could feel how big a bump that was

If I remember correctly, those machines actually simulate an impact at just 5 mph.

Bookworm4 · 02/05/2019 08:40

@fortified
The driver not wearing seatbelt is for a valid reason and it won't protect you whether she's got one in or not.
Attacks on taxi drivers are commonly from person behind grabbing seatbelt so for you to make demands on the taxi driver is unreasonable; would you like someone telling you how to do your job?

havingtochangeusernameagain · 02/05/2019 08:40

I always wear one, I grew up with wearing them. I can't remember now when the law came in, but I was quite young. Also the car beeps at you relentlessly if you don't wear one (and one of our cars even decides that if I put a bag on the passenger seat, that it's a person and starts beeping at me, and it gets louder and louder).

My mum takes hers off if she is reversing as it makes it easier for her.

Why are taxi drivers exempt? Do they have some special protection against flying through a windscreen? I get the no car seats thing, they might not be available. But all modern cars have seat belts fitted (along with the aforementioned alarms).

I didn't know under 12s have to sit in the back. I agree with it, but I don't think most parents either know that's a rule, or agree with it, as I routinely see younger children in the front of cars when the back seat is empty. Is that really the case (in the UK)?

The only thing I can see that seat belts are a problem for is if the car were on fire and you couldn't get it undone. But the chances of that are very small.

Ohyesiam · 02/05/2019 08:40

I know someone who won’t wear one. He thinks he’s the big man, but looking at all the other subtly self destructive stuff he does I would say that unconsciously he doesn’t know how to do life, and doesn’t really like being alive. He struggles with work, with relationships, with sleep.

havingtochangeusernameagain · 02/05/2019 08:41

Oh I just saw that taxi drivers have been attacked (presumably black cab drivers are not exempt as they are in their own separate cabin). I presume they can disable the beeping then?

flirtygirl · 02/05/2019 08:42

People in the back can kill the front passengers without one so they need to buckle up.

But how can it be selfish if you are the only passenger in your own car? If you take a risk on your own life, how is that selfish?

Also many injuries are caused by seat belts. I will always get people to buckle up but if I'm alone and choose not to, is it any body else's business?

I do wear a seat belt but if a grown adult chooses not to, does it matter?

snowbear66 · 02/05/2019 08:47

My friend who is from India I have to constantly remind to put on his seatbelt, it's just not enforced by law there.
When he took his test there he just had to drive in a figure of 8 and he passed!

BertieBotts · 02/05/2019 08:47

I don't know anyone who doesn't but I am quite frequently amazed at how people think. I went to a baby thing at the weekend and they had Britax there with a mobile crash test setup - essentially a baby car seat installed on a car seat on a track that went to the end and stopped suddenly.

They demonstrated the "baby" (doll) just sat in the car seat, no straps, and the baby strapped in correctly. Obviously, without the straps, the baby was flung out. With the straps, just the baby's little booties flew off. That was a crash simulated at 20 km/h (12.5 mph). People watching were amazed that the child came out of the seat at such a low speed. Confused

Oh actually, I met one person once. He reckoned he was "too tall" to wear a seatbelt and it was safer not to, in case his legs got trapped. At least without a seatbelt he'd be outside of the car. Hmm Yeah and probably smeared on the road surface.

drspouse · 02/05/2019 08:48

Under 12s in the back is advisory - we occasionally put DS in the front on his high back booster as otherwise we can't really do up the third seat belt in the back if we have an extra adult.

Damntheman · 02/05/2019 08:49

It's selfish not to wear one even when you're driving on your own because other people are going to have to see/deal with your mangled corpse when you fly through the windscreen isntead of being stopped by your belt.

Personally I think taxi drivers shouldn't be exempt. How often do people really grab at their seatbelts as opposed to how often taxis crash? Drivers could do as regular people and keep a knife close to hand to cut the belt with in the event of someone trying to grab their belt to hurt them. I have a knife in my car to cut the belt with should I crash and get stuck, it's common sense.