Safety Belts: Do you use them or not? And why?

[Racer X 69]

After Sinister's thread got a bit derailed by some seat belt discussion I thought it might be a good idea to start this thread and poll.

Seat belts save lives. Everyday.

The only time a seat belt does not save a life is when it does not get used.

In all but a very few accidents there is always "room to live" inside a vehicle.

Sometimes I hear someone say that a person dies because they couldn't unbuckle the seat belt. If that does happen I would have to say it would be because the person wearing it was not paying attention to how the buckle was operating. There has been times over the years that I have gotten into a vehicle and the seat belt was defective. In a case like that, I make sure the belt gets replaced.

Seat belts need to be inspected frequently, and if there is anything wrong with them they should not be used and the driver should not drive the vehicle anywhere except to get it fixed. All too often people are allowed to operate motor vehicles without being thoroughly trained in the use and operation of the very devices which will save their lives.

I know that sometimes a belt gets uncomfortable, the way that the shoulder belt goes over your chest does not always "fit". I find that the shoulder belt in my truck will rub across the right side of my chest and after a while the nipple is so irritated it hurts. So I got one of those sheepskin belt covers to try and provide some relief.

I have been riding and driving cars and trucks since before seat belts were used. When they did start to become used they were something you bought at the corner auto parts store and bolted to the floor. They were often crude, poorly and improperly installed, and people didn't take to them so well.

As the years passed the development of safety belts, and more recently the addition of supplemental inflatable restraints, has erased any doubt in most folks minds that without seat belts many lives would be lost or at the least changed forever.

Like them or hate them, everyone needs to use them.

So, do you use seat belts or not, and why?

 

[Sinister]

I do not wear them, but I think after what I saw yesterday I'm going to put forth an honest effort to use them more. I don't think I'll ever use them in the truck all the time, especially on loads like the one I'm on now, where I have to jump in an out of the truck umpteen times a day to start pony motors, etc, and I'm moving at such slow speeds, but I'm definetly going to try to use them more when operating at highway speeds run on sentence from hell.

 

[lunachic]

I use them because I got caught and the ticket's r high, But I don't like them so I did'nt vote...........
They don't alway's save lives...............

 

[Racer X 69]

I do not wear them, but I think after what I saw yesterday I'm going to put forth an honest effort to use them more. I don't think I'll ever use them in the truck all the time, especially on loads like the one I'm on now, where I have to jump in an out of the truck umpteen times a day to start pony motors, etc, and I'm moving at such slow speeds, but I'm definetly going to try to use them more when operating at highway speeds run on sentence from hell.

Good point about times when you are running slowly and bouncing in and out of the seat all day. I do the same thing when I have drops at places like the Boeing contractor in Wichita, where I unload some here, move across the facility a quarter mile or so and drop some more, etc. Certainly there will be times when discretion will dictate seat belts aren't necessary.

But I have been using belts so much for so long that when I don't use one I feel naked.

 

[diehard]

i use mine all the time. my belt has a lock that will loosen it up and hold it in place. no rubbing anywhere. i didnt used to wear them untill i seen my stepson lay in a hospital bed for months with a broken neck from a crash from a drunk driver. it changed my outlook quite a bit.

 

[patriciajnsn]

For the most part I buckle up especially going past a weigh station.I did'nt vote because it's the law and I respect the law as much as the law respects the trk drivers.

 

[Keendriver]

I've seen it said "they don't always save lives" almost as a reason to not wear them.I would bet they save lives in the vast majority of crashes. Almost always in rollovers,as you don't get yer ass tossed out and have your life expectancy shortened dramatically.
Now of course a fence post comes thru the windshield into your dental work........well sorry.
Nothing is guaranteed and no safety device is 100%,but I would say you increase your survivability a great deal by using them.

Now ,just to get shit stirred up...........Helmets? Whattya got?

 

[patriciajnsn]

I was going to mention helmets but did'nt wanna get off topic.I think we have to wear a belt the cyclists should have to wear a helmet as well.I mean is'nt it the law that mopeds have to wear a helmets?My cousin died from not wearing his helmit.It was a closed casket funeral.Now if we wasnt forced to wear a belt then I wouldnt have a problem with the bikers not wearing helmets.I think the laws we have are very unfair as to why I hate the law .

 

[Racer X 69]

I've seen it said "they don't always save lives" almost as a reason to not wear them.I would bet they save lives in the vast majority of crashes. Almost always in rollovers,as you don't get yer ass tossed out and have your life expectancy shortened dramatically.
Now of course a fence post comes thru the windshield into your dental work........well sorry.
Nothing is guaranteed and no safety device is 100%,but I would say you increase your survivability a great deal by using them.

Now ,just to get shit stirred up...........Helmets? Whattya got?

Very good points about the belts and other safety devices not being 100% effective. Every piece of safety equipment that I put in my race car has the same disclaimer: "No safety device can protect the user from every unforeseeable occurrence."

I will still always take my chances with any and all safety equipment that the manufacturer has paced in any vehicle I find my butt in.

As for helmets in autos and trucks, no way, unless we are running at high speed in a competition event or a club track day.

I do however, always wear a helmet when riding a motorcycle, no matter what state I am riding in. But I do support every rider's choice to wear or not wear helmets - Helmet Laws Suck!

 

[snowflake]

I forgot to post yesterday...but I have even caught myself reaching for the belts when i get on my ridder and Race I finally got it started but it still has issues.......anyway but I remember cars that didn't have seat belts and I remember when it became law.......I think we were already wearing them before that mainly because we had children and saw it as a safety issue.

 

[lunachic]

Now come on what right do you have saying helmet laws suck, Yes, I value my life, the lives and safety of my family and friends, and I always wear a helmet..........
Double standard alittle................

And know I'm not for helmet law's, but I think seat belt law's should fall under the same.
I wear a helmet only because I was in a bad one and it cracked open after hitting the roof of a car.............

 

[Tn. Truckers Wife]

I always wear my seat belt....I first started wearing it strickly because it was the law and then it became a habit....I will agree with Luna and Keen that they don't always save lives....
When I was 17 I was in a small car and hit in my passenger door and it crushed the passenger side of my car, the only thing that saved my passenger's life was being thrown out of the seat...I do think in the majority of cases that they do save lives though..

 

[Mike]

Ive been in two major wrecks where both times a seat belt would have resulted in me being dead, and prefer not to wear them.

However, do to the overly aggressive enforcement of the law and steep fines, I will wear them in states like Texas where the DPS officers are infatuated with writing tickets for this.

no answer to the poll question do to the biased nature of the choices

 

[2lilboots]

I wear my seat belt. I am just so used to putting the darn thing on it has become habit. It is my choice to do so. I do remember an accident years ago where a young girl was killed due to wearing her seat belt. She was in the back seat of the car and the car was hit by a drunk driver. The seat belt caused internal damage on the impact and did her in.

 

[Racer X 69]

. . . . . I do remember an accident years ago where a young girl was killed due to wearing her seat belt. She was in the back seat of the car and the car was hit by a drunk driver. The seat belt caused internal damage on the impact and did her in.

Could it be she was small enough to have been in a child carseat and wasn't? All too often children are injured or killed because they are not in the correct type of seat.

 

[Racer X 69]

. . . . . no answer to the poll question do to the biased nature of the choices

I added some sarcasm to liven things up a bit, and I have seen other polls here that did so in a similar manner.

I apologize if my attempt at levity has caused some to avoid the poll.

 

[Racer X 69]

Now come on what right do you have saying helmet laws suck, Yes, I value my life, the lives and safety of my family and friends, and I always wear a helmet..........
Double standard alittle................

And know I'm not for helmet law's, but I think seat belt law's should fall under the same.
I wear a helmet only because I was in a bad one and it cracked open after hitting the roof of a car.............

Please re-read my post. I feel that it should be a choice to act responsibly and use the appropriate safety equipment, be it helmets on bikes, or seat belts in cars and trucks. And I have just as much right to say the helmet laws suck as you have to challenge my having said so.

It is tragic that we need the government and laws to tell us how to behave and take care of ourselves. Just look at how many idiots are driving around totally distracted while talking on cell phones or texting, and now they are starting to enact laws to make distracted driving a crime.

Why should we have to enact laws to tell us to do something that good common sense will keep us from doing?

 

[2lilboots]

Could it be she was small enough to have been in a child carseat and wasn't? All too often children are injured or killed because they are not in the correct type of seat.

They didn't have child carseats back then.

 

[farleyd]

It is tragic that we need the government and laws to tell us how to behave and take care of ourselves. Just look at how many idiots are driving around totally distracted while talking on cell phones or texting, and now they are starting to enact laws to make distracted driving a crime.

Why should we have to enact laws to tell us to do something that good common sense will keep us from doing?

This has altered natural selcction and weakend the gean pool!!!!!

 

[saddlesore]

I wear 'em,,and require all my passengers to do the same in my personal vehicles .
That being said.. I am 100% against "air bags" in a class 8 vehicle... even after a crash you most times have some control on the direction the truck is going.. IF you can see ... after being smacked in the snot locker by an air bag .... mebbe not so much