It's not just mobiles...

[summerdays]

I frequently see drivers not wearing seat belts. The funniest reaction that I get is when they see my hi-viz, start pulling on the belt and then realise its not the police and let it drop back.

What annoys me as someone else said is when the entire car isn't wearing them including kids. Its a really bad example to set to the kids.

 

[Rhythm Thief]

When I'm on a bus I usually spot an unrestrained child in the front passenger seat. They're fairly easy to spot as they're often standing in fornt of the seat facing backwards or turing round on the seat.

In Bahrain you often see kids sitting on the front seat passenger's lap, with both the child and the passenger unrestrained. Crunchy Airbags, I call them.

 

[bryce]

Lots of people drive without seatbelts all over the world - it's the same argument as not wearing a cycle helmet. Doesn't make it safer if you do crash, but obviously helps in the off-chance that you do crash.

We have the Germans to thank for increasing levels of seatbelt-wearing though as most of their cars beep repeatedly until you've attached the belt..

 

[thewrinklyninja]

Get alot of no seatbelts in Bradford nowadays. Although it seem's mostly confined to the "Gangsta" wannabes cruising around in the car's with the big "Rims".

 

[Maz]

I think they are wearing seatbelts...they are so obese the fat totally envelopes the belt so you can't see it.

 

[John the Monkey]

I think people are becoming so over-confident with all of the airbags, side impact bags, crumple zones etc etc that they think that they'll survive without the most basic of precautions.

I'm not sure it's as considered as that, really.

For most people, I suspect that 99% of the time they do this stuff, and nothing bad happens. The behaviour then becomes self reinforcing, and attempts to enforce the law met with "But I don't crash" or "Yes, I was texting, but I drive more carefully when I do" etc.

 

[skrx]

There is a government video somewhere, it shows a teenage boy in the back seat not wearing a seatbelt. Him mum, driving, does an emergency stop. He flies out of the seat and crushes her.

Someone in the front seats is presumably only a danger to themselves.

 

[downfader]

There is a government video somewhere, it shows a teenage boy in the back seat not wearing a seatbelt. Him mum, driving, does an emergency stop. He flies out of the seat and crushes her.

Someone in the front seats is presumably only a danger to themselves.

Sadly its a case of the common public not beleiving the science. Its the same as the rubbish that people beleived about MMR vaccines. We have a media now that uses soundbites from the public rather than experts and that seems to lead to nonsense being touted about.

I have often said that if you removed all the safety features from the cars today perhaps people would drive with a little more care. I once really upset a fella on another forum when I said this and it transpired that he and his daughter had nearly been killed when a car ran a red light and smashed into theirs.

The safety features actually saved them.

 

[goo_mason]

Took my week's worth of gear in today (first day back), so was using the bus.

Decided to start counting the un-belted drivers I saw on the way home... and gave up on reaching 25 in the first 3 miles. What's going on ? And what's the law with driving a Transit or an Escort van ? Do you have to wear a belt ? Half of the van drivers I saw in these were belted up, the other half weren't. (I didn't count them as I wasn't sure whether they were supposed to belt up or not).

Not that it's really a problem that affects me if no-one is belted in, as they're only going to hurt themselves as they hit the windscreen or go through it ! But I just find it astonishing that the number of unrestrained drivers is growing so rapidly in such a short space of time.

 

[hambones]

This thread also highlights the fact that very few people actually crash!

 

[hambones]

On my commute I regularly pass cars with a tell tale smell wafting through the open windows. Actually this occurs moreoften in the morning - a case of people doping up to get them through the day.

 

[Mr Creosote]

It's something I see every day of the week on my commute. Seems it doesn't matter what sex, what age, what nationality or how expensive or cheap the car is.... not wearing a seatbelt is more epidemic then mobile phone users.

You must redmember Goo that these people think they are above the law.. that or they are in fact complete and utter selfish peanuts.

Rewritten:

It's something I see every day of the week on my commute. Seems it doesn't matter what sex, what age, what nationality or how expensive or cheap the bike is.... not wearing a helmet is more epidemic than red light jumping.

You must redmember Goo that these people think they are above the law.. that or they are in fact complete and utter selfish peanuts.

Prehaps you can now see how illogical your argument is? Wearing s seatbelt should be as much a freedom of choice as wearing a helmet should be. No? If you want one as a safety measure you logically have to legislate for the wearing of helmets on the same grounds.

 

[palinurus]

On my commute I regularly pass cars with a tell tale smell wafting through the open windows. Actually this occurs moreoften in the morning - a case of people doping up to get them through the day.

That's one of the first signs of spring, the smell of dope from a wound-down window.

It is odd, the morning joint thing. I guess it's difficult to fit it in at work.

 

[downfader]

Rewritten:

It's something I see every day of the week on my commute. Seems it doesn't matter what sex, what age, what nationality or how expensive or cheap the bike is.... not wearing a helmet is more epidemic than red light jumping.

You must redmember Goo that these people think they are above the law.. that or they are in fact complete and utter selfish peanuts.

Prehaps you can now see how illogical your argument is? Wearing s seatbelt should be as much a freedom of choice as wearing a helmet should be. No? If you want one as a safety measure you logically have to legislate for the wearing of helmets on the same grounds.

Er no.

You can be thrown from a car at 30mph and die. If you crash a pushbike at 30 the helmet may have very little effect on anything quite solid (a wall, kerb or another larger vehicle)

Remember the cycle helmet is only rated for 12mph impacts at 1m (so falling off a bike rather than being thrown from it)

If you're not thrown from a car your head can smash into the dash, the steering wheel, the windows. You can rattle around inside the vehicle as it rolls about and come out like red chutney. You can become impaled on the gear stick...

I would say wearing a seatbelt would be much better for your personal safety that wearing a cycle helmet.

 

[John the Monkey]

Nah, a car headband is what's required;

http://casr.adelaide.edu.au/developments/headband/

In about 44 percent of cases of occupant head injury, a protective headband, such as the one illustrated, would have provided some benefit. One estimate has put the potential benefit of such a device (in terms of reduced societal Harm) as high as $380 million, compared with $123 million for padding the upper interior of the car. This benefit derives from the fact that in a crash, the head strikes objects other than those that could be padded inside the car.

Given the number of drivers compared to cyclists in the UK, it seems that attempts at compulsion regarding cycle helmets should be halted immediately, and all effort transferred to promoting legislation requiring the wearing of the car headband by motorists and passengers.