Do you wear your seatbelt?

[mcolford]

Wasn't a personal attack, friend.

Merely food for thought.


*I* DO have family I care about. *I* have a wife I love. *I* have a daughter at home whom I love. *I* have another child on the way. *I* want to make the decision to be around as long as I can for THEM. That's just one of myriad reasons I choose to wear my seat belt. Not every decision I make is made wholly for me.

ETA: Along the same lines: I didn't take first aid classes necessarily for ME, I took it so i could help others. I didn't take CPR certification for ME, I took it so I could help others. I didn't get AED certified for ME, I took it so could help others. I don't take firearms training classes just for ME, I took them so I can better help protect my family should the need arise.

I understand it isn't a personal attack, no worries bub. My point is, just like a lot of things from our gov't.. I feel this is a decision that should be made by each person, not big brother. Someone getting tossed from a car is a tragedy for sure, but the choice they made to not wear that seatbelt is their choice. That decision will not harm the driver of the other vehicle they hit, solely affects the driver and their family.


Like I said, I wear it when Im going anywhere over a mile, but when most of my driving is in alleys, or streets where I cant get over 15 mph, I dont usually worry about it. However if the whole family is in the car, and were heading into town, yes we are all belted.

Maybe Im a rebel.

 

[Ted]

Actually, in high school I had a friend that her neck was snapped as she WAS BELTED in the back seat of the car, and when they were hit, she got partially thrown out of the back window, only retained in by the seatbelt. Dead on scene.

So yes first hand I have seen both sides of the coin.

Seatbelts, like all safety equipment, aren't designed to eliminate risk, but merely limit it. Dale Earnhardt is a prime example of perfect utilization of safety equipment that failed to satisfy its ultimate purpose.

 

[indytechnerd]

Seatbelts, like all safety equipment, aren't designed to eliminate risk, but merely limit it. Dale Earnhardt is a prime example of perfect utilization of safety equipment that failed to satisfy its ultimate purpose.

Not entirely true. If I remember correctly, Dale wasn't a fan of, nor was he wearing, the HANS device that restrains the head/helmet in the racing seat.

Anyone correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[FirstTime]

Always

 

[mcolford]

Seatbelts, like all safety equipment, aren't designed to eliminate risk, but merely limit it. Dale Earnhardt is a prime example of perfect utilization of safety equipment that failed to satisfy its ultimate purpose.

Never said it was a fix all by any means... Just clarifying the whole brother's friend's ex-sister inlaw's neighbor's father's best friend thing.

I wish their were a magic way to keep the roads safe, but their aint. I just dont agree with the government wanting to have a say in every choice I could potentially make every day..

 

[Ted]

Not entirely true. If I remember correctly, Dale wasn't a fan of, nor was he wearing, the HANS device that restrains the head/helmet in the racing seat.

Anyone correct me if I'm wrong.

You're correct, but he was in fact utilizing his harness, helmet, fire resistant clothing, etc. HANS wasn't required by NASCAR in 2001.

If it had, Earnhart would likely be alive today.

 

[db1959]

Where's the choice?

 

[darkkevin]

wear my seatbelt always! had to help my ex for over a year with her wheelchair/walker/crutches after she snapped her femur under the steering wheel of my old nova not wearing her seatbelt, made me a believer! i HATE the fact that big brother say's i have to!

that being said, i refuse to wear a helmet when riding my harley
and avoid states that make me wear one as much as possible.

 

[CountryBoy19]

Always... it's so much of a habit that I find myself putting it on even if I'm only moving my car back a few feet in the driveway or something silly like that...

I dont most of the time, I drive a 6,000 lb steel monster.

My brother did too.... freak accident happened and seatbelt saved him from some very serious injury. He turned a Dodge 3500 cummins truck into a mess of mangled parts. He had to get some stitches on his face but we're certain that injury happened prior to airbag deployment. Otherwise not another injury on his body.

Whether I do or not, I dont truly view that as anyone's business. My choices are my choices, its that simple. I oppose the seatbelt law for adults. We are adults, we should have the simple right to make the choice on whether to wear the belt or not. Its that simple. Our government doing more micro-management.

That's somewhat beside the discussion though, even though it has turned that direciton. The question was, "Do you wear a seatbelt?", not "How do you feel about goverment mandated seatbelts?"

I respect your position, I also think they should keep out of everybody's business, but they don't. The fact of the matter is, seatbelts save lives.

I can tell you a story about a life that was saved because driver was wearing his seatbelt and passenger wasn't. Had either of those been the other way there likely would have been a fatality. But for every story like that there are multiple others where a life or serious injury was saved because of it.

 

[seldon14]

Always. Before even starting the car to go anywhere.

The "But you might get killed BECAUSE you were wearing a seat belt" argument has always been incredibly stupid. It is statistically less safe.

If you had the choice between 2 medications to try to save your life, but one has a 2% chance of killing you and the other a 1% would your really take the 2% because the the 1% option may kill you?

 

[IndyDave1776]

November 2010, MrsGBuck and I had just started dating and I was on my way back from visiting her at Purdue. I witnessed a semi vs. car accident. The car had been riding in the lane scheduled to end due to construction for far too long (one of my pet peeves) and cut the semi off at the last second. The semi rear ended the car. The driver of the semi was thrown about 50 feet out the front of his cab, past the car that he hit. The car then ran him over. DOA. The driver of the car was able to get out and walk around just fine, with no apparent injury. The Semi ended up jack-knifed with the tractor facing northbound with the median guard rail splitting the cab. The trailer was still facing south.

Guess what would have prevented the semi driver's unnecessary loss of life? Answer: A seatbelt. (or the other guy not being a dipsh**, or a lot of other small things probably)

I understand it's easy to think your 80,000lb truck renders you invincible, but I've seen otherwise with my own eyes.

Wow. This is the first driver fatality I have heard of which did not involve the semi getting wadded up like a ball of aluminum foil usually after either hitting another semi, hitting a large stationary object or going either down an embankment or into a hill, or else having the fifth wheel break loose and getting run over by his own trailer.

 

[gsp83]

Second nature for me to wear it. It's an after thought when I get in my truck.

 

[DragonGunner]

I never wore one until 99' when I started flying my powered parachute, for some reason it just rubbed off onto driving my truck, an I always have since. In 1972 my sister rolled her car several time, it threw her to the passanger side floor, an the drivers side roof caved in....if she had her belt on it would of killed her.

 

[9mmfan]

Ever since I first started to drive. Has saved my bacon several times in some pretty severe accidents (only one was my fault).

 

[BiscuitNaBasket]

Yes, just like carrying a gun, it has become second nature.

 

[eric001]

A couple of decades ago, my then wife-to-be and I were in a little Mazda truck that got about 2 feet shorter all of a sudden--the officer on the scene said that if not for our seatbelts, we'd both have been road patties. Ever since then, the ignition doesn't turn without EVERYbody in the vehicle belted in, period.

 

[spainy79]

As far as the seat belt dingers I shut mine off. I don't need a dinger to remind me to put my belt on but if I'm also just moving a vehicle a short distance (hooking the truck up to the boat) I don't need to be reminded that my belt isn't on. As soon as it drops in gear the dinger started going. Read my manual and did the whole turn the key, buckle/unbuckle, rub your belly-pat your head and sacrifice a chicken to shut it off.

 

[Tactical Dave]

When I was a baby the seat belt held long enough to keep me out of a lake... I was ejected and the car seat got stuck in front of one of the front wheels with my body against the tire. It is all that kept the car from rolling in the lake, my mom who was pregnant was driving and younger brother was in another car seat.

I was there for an hour just relaxing... Fire fighters were searching the lake for me.... I got a big plaque from the Colorado state patrol for it. I was officially credited with saving their lives... Even though I was like 1.

 

[shootamc58]

I never really thought about this, but I always wear mine when I have the wife and kids in the car. When I'm by myself in my fun car, I never wear it. Not sure why, but that is what i do

 

[Rocket]

I just remembered a funny story (now) not at the time I bet. As stated earlier I always ware one. Cause Dad and Mom always did. But I remember being told That one day Dad was driving the Family Gremlin. Mom was pregnant with me. My 2yr old brother in her lap. Dad slid around a corner , door popped open, Mom, Brother and little unborn Rocket flew out of that POS and slid across the road. No damage but my Mothers pride. I bet that's when they started wearing them.