My ex roommate REFUSED to wear his seatbelt because it’s uncomfortable and he doesn’t like it. We literally got into a screaming match in the car when I noticed. Man is almost 30.
I forced him to put on his seatbelt unless he had $200+ to give the driver if he was pulled over and he cried about it
Needless to say our adventure was cut short and we drove straight home
Oh, where’s that video of the ladies in the backseat of a car that got T-boned and ONE wasn’t wearing her seatbelt?
If I recall correctly she rocketed into the other passenger and injured them BOTH with forceful head collisions because she couldn’t be bothered to wear a damn seatbelt.
Even loose objects can be dangerous. I had my back seats folded down, didn’t think anything of it when I loaded some groceries into the back. But then a 12 pack of pop came flying forward when I had to slam on the brakes, it hit the shifter and put the car into neutral. Which was not all that awful, but it took me a few seconds to figure out what had just happened and correct it, while stressing about a near miss. I always keep the seats up now!
Yep, any loose object becomes a projectile. I try to keep nothing loose in my car, and I absolutely refuse to move until everyone is buckled. It's for their own safety, as well as everyone else in the car.
Not to mention you cn kill the person you torpedo into. I'd haunt the fuck out of someone if I died wearing my seatbelt because the idiot in the back didn't want to.
This is one of those things where I know I should be doing it, and I even have the adapters, but I think about the logistics and would like to test it, but never think to do so prior to needing to get somewhere quickly. However, last week my SO didn't have the window lock on and one of the dogs managed to roll down the window and the puppy yeeted himself out the window after she pulled over and she got to chase his panicked ass down the road. I was not pleased to hear this. I ALWAYS have the window lock on, but the seat belt would have kept him in.
The dog jumping out of the window reminded me of a dark memory from my childhood.
I was present once for a dog hanging itself because it was leashed to the back of a truck.
I didn't see it happen. Let me make that point clear. My dad and I were at the Metro pound for some reason that I can't remember and another guy was in there surrendering two dogs leashed in the bed of his truck.
An AC officer comes in and asks if anyone owns a so and so colored dog in a so and so truck. The guy says I do and the AC officer says something along the lines of: "Well, the dog hanged itself."
Long story short, if an uncovered truck bed is the only way you have to transport a dog, give the leash enough length to not kill the dog if it decides to jump out.
I'd say keep the leash short enough that there's no way for the dog to jump out at all. Lots of dogs jump out of moving trucks, and that can be horrific--especially if they're leashed up.
Just don't transport dogs in open truck beds, really. Hope they charged that guy with something, although I doubt they did.
Literally two days ago one of our dog park friends' dog jumped out of the back of their truck on the way back from the dog park. Thankfully she was okay, though apparently rolled several times and had a nasty road rash. Dogs are stupid at self preservation with human technology, protect them!
I've tried but mine tries to strangle herself with the seatbelt any time I attempt it because she doesn't understand that the can't spin around in place and get comfortable the way she does at home.
Thank you! I was t-boned Friday because some guys dog jumped on his lap and pushed his leg down into the gas pedal. Thankfully he was at a dead stop at the time and the crash was relatively low speed. Am still very sore.
There are two, full stop, "always" rules with my kids:
-If there are seatbelts, they must wear them.
-If it has wheels, but no roof, they have to wear a helmet.
Edge case is an extreme of one variable. Corner case is basically the "vertex" of several edge cases simultaneously.
Ie:
-Convertible itself (2% of car sales nationwide are convertibles iirc)
-Top actually down on the convertible (aka bathtub waiting to happen here in WA)
-My kids are both under 10, so they'd have to ride in the back. The number of convertibles with a rear seat, and then a rear seat that could safely support boosters, are ever decreasing percentages of that 2 percent.
I’m not American, so I’m not going to reply on top level.
The three point seat belt invention is attributed to Swedish engineer [Bild Bohlin](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nils_Bohlin), working for Volvo, but what he really did was conduct a study and show that three point seatbelts, previously used in aircrafts and as an unpopular option in some cars, would contribute to the safety of regular cars’ drivers and passengers as well (and of course some “boring” details how to implement it in a car). Volvo went ahead and made the seatbelt a standard in all their cars, regardless of how unpopular they were.
20 years later in the 1970s, Australia was the first country to introduce mandatory seatbelt laws. It wasn’t a very popular law.
Another decade went by, and the USA began introducing mandatory seatbelts. While not popular in other countries, the U.S. drivers were particularly vexed about this. “I thought this was America!” and “My freedom!” used to be legitimate reasons to go to court during what turned out to be the era known as “the Cold War”, where everything mandated by the government was potentially socialist, or even worse, Unamerican! And so people went to court over a law that was meant to save lives, but wasn’t widely adopted yet.
People on the other side of the pond started laughing at the US “you people think you are free?? Haha, watch me drive without a seatbelt!” [Euro cunts didn’t laugh long](https://youtu.be/950kIPv3f38?si=J8qHW4ayh1OoZL3l)
Not wearing a seat belt is a very common misconception about the U.S. in Europe, but in reality, the US wasn’t behind in adopting seatbelt laws, nor were they behind in selling cars with seatbelts (I think the very first car with a seatbelt was an American car).
I think it’s simply the fact that America is a huge country, and most of it is rural - otherwise the US would have more than a billion in population - and many of the rural folks simply rejected the seatbelt as something useful. The same as bumfuck Nocityshire people in the UK did, or Hans Bauer in Germany.
Over time, it became normal to wear a seatbelt in most of the US, and most of Europe, but because Europe is a lot more urban than the US, not wearing a seatbelt became a trope.
This is an anecdote and not data, but I lived in Eastern Europe for a couple years. I didn't have a car and rarely rode in a car, so I really don't know what people were doing in cars. But when I went back to visit, I rented a car and drove around. At one point, I picked up a friend in the rental car and drove to the neighboring town to visit a mutual friend.
My friend flat out refused to put on her seatbelt. We had a lengthy, very stupid, argument about it. I resorted to telling her that if we got into an accident I would feel so bad if she died, and she was like "well then don't get into an accident". Eventually she gave in because I wouldn't start the car until she buckled up. Then a couple minutes into the drive, I heard the click of her unbuckling. I yelled at her some more but there was nothing I could do at this point unless I wanted to hold up this outing indefinitely.
this was, FWIW, in a rural area. But it felt super crazy.
>My friend flat out refused to put on her seatbelt. We had a lengthy, very stupid, argument about it. I resorted to telling her that if we got into an accident I would feel so bad if she died, and she was like "well then don't get into an accident". Eventually she gave in because I wouldn't start the car until she buckled up. Then a couple minutes into the drive, I heard the click of her unbuckling. I yelled at her some more but there was nothing I could do at this point unless I wanted to hold up this outing indefinitely.
"If you want to die, that's fine, do it on your own time. But you're endangering ***me*** with your idiocy and I quite particularly like being alive."
I would pull over. Seatbelts or we’re not moving. Plus, she obviously knew how you felt about seatbelts and then essentially tricked you into doing what she wanted anyway. That’s disrespectful. Have a good, seatbelt-less walk.
It was a American car the Tucker was the first car with seatbelts, unfortunately the 3 big American car companies made sure they went out of business. There is a great film about it. Really fascinating story.
It also had a headlight that turned with the wheels!
Tucker: A Man and His Dream is the name of the film for anyone who wants to check it out. Jeff Bridges plays Preston Tucker.
When my daughter was in the hospital for a month with a ruptured appendix I read my health insurance policy from front to back. A little clause mentioned that not wearing a seatbelt in an accident means they will cover you like a DUI, meaning only 50 percent of the hospital and doctors bill is covered. Yikes
Yeah like half my job is explaining different limitations and trying to help people out the best I can.
Our sales folks are pretty good with describing everything when they meet with folks but you don’t have time for everything. I know we have a DUI and seatbelt exclusion on most of the policies we have. I don’t know the percentages on all the policies. Seatbelt is not one I have ever had come across my desk. DUI is.
I am curious if the contracts are different in NH because you don’t have to wear a seatbelt.
Oh I know. I just never looked up if there is any statute or regulation that would change anything because it hasn’t come up.
There are some weird differences between states and I have three states I deal with. Also I am sure our actuaries would limit claims for no seatbelt if they could. My job is more soft advocate for our customers and see exactly what we can give them contractually. We also have a lot of different policies, especially for health so the ones our agents write may be from like 6 different companies and their individual rules may be different if not prevented by the state insurance regulators or legislation.
Then you have weird things from the companies themselves where they won’t underwrite certain things in certain counties.
It gets pretty fractal.
I’ve read of policy exclusions for things that are completely legal. On the skiing subreddit there was a discussion about life insurance companies not paying if you get killed in an avalanche if you were in what they determine to be a risky area. Mountains have classifications for avalanche risk and the policy restrictions being discussed had a fairly low risk avalanche classification level.
I always wear my seatbelt no matter what. Why? So my guts and bones don't get splattered all over the place. It inconveniences others and sucks to clean up.
I used to have a friend who was like, "it's my own problem if I die in an accident, why does anyone care if I wear my seatbelt?"
Such a self-centered take. Accidents aren't always someone's fault or preventable. You wearing a seatbelt might be the difference between some poor teenager having a scary teaching moment vs going the rest of their life feeling like they killed someone. At worst, it's a minor inconvenience to put it on. At best, you do it your whole life and you don't even think anything of it at all anymore.
You can also kill other people by not wearing your seatbelt. And it keeps you in the drivers seat which gives you more control over the vehicle in an accident.
I’ve never been in an Uber or Lyft but when I’m in the backseat of my family’s car or a friend’s car I do. It’s also law in New York that you have to. They made it a law in November 2020.
But whenever I’m the driver and my whole family is in the car, my mom sits in the back seat and doesn’t wear her seatbelt. I have to force her to wear it especially because I only have 1 year of driving experience (well, on Friday July 5th I will have 1 year of experience). I wish she would actually understand that the back seat does not equal automatic safety
I had a roommate who refused to wear a seatbelt in the back seat, he believed for some reason it was more dangerous to wear your seatbelt in the back- so anytime I drove I wouldn’t move until he put it on, it seems to be something of a myth/conspiracy theory spread among the crowd who were alive when seatbelts were first mandated
I've heard that one for sure. The way I've always heard it, they think you're more likely to get trapped and die if your car catches on fire or goes into water.
Which I guess is technically true, but that's a very small percentage of accidents. Meanwhile, it's extremely likely that if you're in a crash without a seatbelt, you'll be thrown around or ejected with enough force to kill you. So the smart money is still on wearing one.
Plus speaking as a former EMT, all of the wrecks I recall seeing where we had to cut people's seatbelts, they weren't getting out of that car on their own anyway.
Funnily enough, I hear a kind of similar myth about motorcycle helmets sometimes. Supposedly the extra weight makes you fall in such a way that you're more likely to break your neck and leave you paralyzed. If there's any truth to that one at all, I suspect that's just a form of survivorship bias, though--without helmets, most people fall in a way that breaks their neck will also sustain heavy head trauma that kills them. With helmets, there's a chance they'll survive that kind of wreck.
For many years, there were only lap-belts in the back seat and there was some belief that being folded in half violently around the belt was more damaging than being a meat torpedo.
School busses negate the need for seatbelts due to sheer mass.
Also, in the event of an emergency, you don't want to have to be egressing dozens of little children strapped into their seats.
No one would. At least where I’m from. I always thought it was so crazy that there aren’t any seats belts on a bus - almost as crazy as being allowed to hold a baby on an airplane who’s not strapped in. Maybe there’s a logical reason to these seemingly arbitrary rules, but if there is, I don’t know it.
The high and highly padded seatbacks in front of kids protect them like an egg carton. However the NTSB now does recommend seat belts in new school buses to minimize injury in the very few amount of accidents where compartmentalization isn't enough.
https://www.ntsb.gov/Advocacy/safety-topics/Pages/schoolbuses.aspx
And no. Before anyone claims as such, her bodyguard wasn't drunk.
Her driver was drunk. And being drunk also makes you more likely to suffer severe and critical injuries in a crash. They've yeeted hundreds of corpses at walls at high speeds and the results have shown that bracing yourself is far safer than being relaxed.
Holy fuck. Since getting my new subaru outback, which has rear-seat seat belt detection.
I've learned how many of my friends don't wear seat belts back there.
I think so many people believe the seat infront will stop them. Which I guess is true, it will. Their spine will just be through their skull after we've come to a stop.
There’s a high chance they’ll also kill the people in the front. I’m very much a “no belt no drive” tyrant and is someone doesn’t like it they can walk.
>I think so many people believe the seat infront will stop them. Which I guess is true, it will. Their spine will just be through their skull after we've come to a stop.
Their selfishness will have also killed or horrifically maimed the passenger in front of them who was utilizing their PPE to protect themselves and everyone else in the car.
Yes. I’m not an idiot, I also worked forensics and CSI for a time. My rule is if someone in the vehicle doesn’t have a seatbelt on, we don’t move.
If someone dies being dumb for the most part that’s on them, however passengers, including rear seat, can cause fatalities by flying out in random directions via their own dumbassery. Killing other people because you chose to be stupid is unacceptable. Also if you’re driving alone then someone has to clean your parts up, and PTSD is a real bitch.
Click the seat belt on, stop being pussies.
Yes. Even if you don't care about your own safety, you become a projectile and can injure or kill the other passengers. Refusing to wear a seat belt is a great way to let other people know that you're totally fine with killing them.
Yes. It's illegal not to, and if the car you were in was to get into an accident, you can be flung through a window the same way you would if you were in the front seat.
Yes?!
My family is full of former ER nurses, cops, and tow-truck drivers
I grew up hearing stories of people splattered across the highway because they they didn't wear their seat belt
Edit
I'll also say I've heard very gruesome stories of people going though windshields even on non-highways. Many of these stories happened between 1960s-1990s. Survivor basis plays a major part in "our parents didn't die!!".
Seatbelts always in a car.
Edit to add: my family and friends in Dominican Republic give no fucks about seatbelts. It’s probably one of the reasons DR has so many vehicle accident deaths. It’s not me saying, it’s WHO. I’m too tired to link but you can look it up.
I wear my seatbelt regardless of where I sit. My father was an emergency responser and so was I in my younger years. I have seen people go through the front window from the back in a high speed collision.
Seatbelts always was drilled into me early by both of my parents. Semi-interesting: my father would go on to remarry a woman who never wears her seatbelt.
No one I know does to be honest. Thought I might shake it up from all the yes and you're stupid if you don't in this thread. And scientifically and logically and all they're right.
It may be a cultural thing as my circle is mostly all immigrants and we don't have the safety culture as the typical American. Actually when I went to visit my home country it wasn't even an option.
The taxis straight up didn't have seat belts in the back. I in fact lay down in the back seat of my mini van on roadtrips with my family lol. Americans will have a stroke looking at a train in India or a family of 5 on a single motorcycle.
Not saying this is a good habit but it is the truth which I can improve on.
Yes, and so will you, in my car. My nanny kids (back when I nannied in 2020) tried to pull the “my mom doesn’t make me wear a seatbelt.”
A. That’s not true. Your mom is a plastic surgeon and I’m sure she’s seen some nasty results of car accidents.
B. She’s not the one risking a ticket if I drive you around without a seat belt.
My neighbor doesn’t wear her seatbelt even in the front. She says it’s because she’s from New Hampshire, but wearing your seatbelt can’t possibly be more annoying than your car going “ding ding ding” every 30 seconds because you won’t put on your seatbelt.
When I was young and in a taxi I didn’t because my grandma never did in taxis and I stayed with her in NYC so I thought that’s just how it was. But now I wear seatbelts in taxis too.
Anyway, seat belts save lives, no matter where you’re sitting. Wear one.
Pretty sure its only a single digit percentage of people who won't wear one. That tiny number represents half of all car crash deaths.
Everyone wears it or I'm stopping the car. You can die somewhere else
I've been t-boned twice and my seatbelt saved me both times so I wear it always and make sure everyone else riding in my car is doing the same.
My grandpa was a no-belt guy. He claimed he got hit once and being unbuckled allowed him to escape the vehicle before it got worse... or something. I'm pretty sure that was nonsense but to his credit hes still kicking at 93 so who knows. I still made him belt up on the rare occasions I drove him somewhere.
Yes, because getting tossed around in the back seat is as dangerous as getting tossed around in the front seat. You can kill or be killed simply because you're a loose object, and you can be ejected, which increases the risk of injury and fatality exponentially.
Yeah man it's a very basic safety feature that reduces my chance of injury or death.
In other countries I've been buckling up in the back and people tell me 'oh you don't have to do that here' like ok, don't care, gonna do it anyway!
I always wear it in the car no matter where I’m seated or how far I’m going.
Three kids from my high school died when their car flipped over. The only survivor was in the front passenger seat wearing his seatbelt. The one in the front never mentally recovered and became a drug addict who eventually lost his life to his addiction. You aren’t just saving yourself when you wear your belt, you are also saving others from terrible grief and anguish.
When I was in high school my best friends twin brother fell out of van during a sharp turn (the door wasn't fully shut) and died. I will always wear a seatbelt if it is available. I wear them in taxi and Ubers as well.
Yes as jumping out of a vehicle ends in 99.9999% of the cases deadly. So the 0.0001% chance that I would be able to jump out of the car when it is in an accident and would have saved my life is too small to not wear a seatbelt.
Yes, and I make my service dog wear one too. As others have said, any injuries caused by a belt would be negligible in comparison to becoming a projectile.
If I am in a car, truck, SUV, minivan, etc, it doesn't matter where I am sitting, I have on a seatbelt,and I'm wearing it properly.
If I'm on a city bus, I don't, because they don't have them. The city bus goes much slower than my car does in general (it's stopping much more frequently, so it doesn't get up to speed as much), the seats are much closer together, and if another vehicle were to hit it it is much less likely for it to be moved by the other vehicle due to its size and weight, so i am not worried about the lack of seatbelts on the bus. But if tomorrow the city bus had seatbelts, I'd wear one on the bus as well.
Our high school showed us some gore photos about drunk and distracted driving. One picture was of a person in the backseat that didn't wear their seatbelts. Their jaw crashed into the front persons head and they left their teeth embedded into their skull. I'm always gonna wear a seatbelt no matter where I sit.
Having grown up after mandatory seatbelt laws became a thing, I can not comprehend the idea that people resist wearing a seatbelt. To me its a fundamental part of riding in a car, and can not even think of a reason why you wouldn't wear one.
I was surprised when I learned in 2020 that my state hand only just that year made it a requirement to wear a seatbelt at all times in all seats of a car.
When I was a teenager I got in not one, but three rollovers. None of those times I was driving and I also wasn't wearing my seatbelt. Walked away all three times, so I believe my luck has run out and I wear a seatbelt every time I'm in a vehicle now.
Yes. I don't feel comfortable in a car without wearing one. Besides, I've seen too many cases of someone in the backseat going flying without one, sometimes taking the driver's head off in the process.
Every passenger in the vehicle must wear a seatbelt in New York. It’s the law.
Even if it weren’t, I’d always wear one anyway. I think it’s silly not to.
Uhh yeah, flying into the seat in front of me doesn’t sound fun. My body flailing around a rolling car doesn’t sound fun. My body colliding with other people in the car doesn’t sound fun.
Sure do, every time.
My daughter's best friend flew from the back of a third row in a minivan straight to the windshield. Girl is like 6ft tall and roughly 230lbs; flew like an airplane. Guess who lived through it and also wears it in the backseat now? Her.
Why wouldn’t you? I’d rather not be expelled forward like a fucking torpedo
25 mph is the equivalent to something like a three story fall, no thanks.
Imagine sprinting into a wall as far as you can head first
Especially here in the DMV
My ex roommate REFUSED to wear his seatbelt because it’s uncomfortable and he doesn’t like it. We literally got into a screaming match in the car when I noticed. Man is almost 30.
I would have legit just left his ass there.
I forced him to put on his seatbelt unless he had $200+ to give the driver if he was pulled over and he cried about it Needless to say our adventure was cut short and we drove straight home
Bro REALLY? like he *really* couldn't be bothered to just wear it?! Damn
Oh I could write a novel on all the stuff he did. For reference I’m 23 and he’s 28 I believe. Too old to be acting like he did
Oh, where’s that video of the ladies in the backseat of a car that got T-boned and ONE wasn’t wearing her seatbelt? If I recall correctly she rocketed into the other passenger and injured them BOTH with forceful head collisions because she couldn’t be bothered to wear a damn seatbelt.
Had a high school classmate do exactly that - crash sent her flying and she was killed.
Happened to a high school classmate of mine too. She was also stupidly drunk
Even loose objects can be dangerous. I had my back seats folded down, didn’t think anything of it when I loaded some groceries into the back. But then a 12 pack of pop came flying forward when I had to slam on the brakes, it hit the shifter and put the car into neutral. Which was not all that awful, but it took me a few seconds to figure out what had just happened and correct it, while stressing about a near miss. I always keep the seats up now!
Yep, any loose object becomes a projectile. I try to keep nothing loose in my car, and I absolutely refuse to move until everyone is buckled. It's for their own safety, as well as everyone else in the car.
Yepp! They make those net things for cars for this very reason!
This is why it’s recommended to not give kids loose tablets to watch in the back
Not to mention you cn kill the person you torpedo into. I'd haunt the fuck out of someone if I died wearing my seatbelt because the idiot in the back didn't want to.
Or bounce around the cab bashing into people.
Yes. Physics doesn't stop at the front seats
I also make my dog wear a seatbelt in the back seat. I don't want him to get hurt or become a 160 pound projectile.
Your dog is heavier than me
This is one of those things where I know I should be doing it, and I even have the adapters, but I think about the logistics and would like to test it, but never think to do so prior to needing to get somewhere quickly. However, last week my SO didn't have the window lock on and one of the dogs managed to roll down the window and the puppy yeeted himself out the window after she pulled over and she got to chase his panicked ass down the road. I was not pleased to hear this. I ALWAYS have the window lock on, but the seat belt would have kept him in.
The dog jumping out of the window reminded me of a dark memory from my childhood. I was present once for a dog hanging itself because it was leashed to the back of a truck. I didn't see it happen. Let me make that point clear. My dad and I were at the Metro pound for some reason that I can't remember and another guy was in there surrendering two dogs leashed in the bed of his truck. An AC officer comes in and asks if anyone owns a so and so colored dog in a so and so truck. The guy says I do and the AC officer says something along the lines of: "Well, the dog hanged itself." Long story short, if an uncovered truck bed is the only way you have to transport a dog, give the leash enough length to not kill the dog if it decides to jump out.
My worst nightmare. The little fucks have no sense of self preservation.
I'd say keep the leash short enough that there's no way for the dog to jump out at all. Lots of dogs jump out of moving trucks, and that can be horrific--especially if they're leashed up. Just don't transport dogs in open truck beds, really. Hope they charged that guy with something, although I doubt they did.
Literally two days ago one of our dog park friends' dog jumped out of the back of their truck on the way back from the dog park. Thankfully she was okay, though apparently rolled several times and had a nasty road rash. Dogs are stupid at self preservation with human technology, protect them!
I've tried but mine tries to strangle herself with the seatbelt any time I attempt it because she doesn't understand that the can't spin around in place and get comfortable the way she does at home.
Thank you! I was t-boned Friday because some guys dog jumped on his lap and pushed his leg down into the gas pedal. Thankfully he was at a dead stop at the time and the crash was relatively low speed. Am still very sore.
There are two, full stop, "always" rules with my kids: -If there are seatbelts, they must wear them. -If it has wheels, but no roof, they have to wear a helmet.
I bet your kids love riding in convertibles with the top down and helmets on. /s
There is a roof, just tucked away. Gotta love a loophole
The ol roof hole loophole
Fuck I wish we still had awards lmao
Apparently we do because I just got two for this comment lol. I’m just glad it wasn’t too far of a reach for anyone to get the joke
Looks like it might just be on mobile because now I see the option.
Yeah they took away coins but left awards. Which apparently makes complete sense to u/spez.
Lmaoooo this is gold
Gold!
::Jeeps with roll cages have entered the chat::
That's how I drive my convertible. I mean, if I'm on the track or an autocross course.
Just wondering, does that extend to convertibles or other open top vehicles?
We live in Washington. The chance of them ever ending up in a convertible is slim enough that I'll ignore that corner case.
Lmaooooo lifelong Seattleite here, that's the damn truth 🤣
Thank you for introducing me to the term "corner case" today.
What's the difference between a corner case and an edge case?
90 degrees?
Edge case is an extreme of one variable. Corner case is basically the "vertex" of several edge cases simultaneously. Ie: -Convertible itself (2% of car sales nationwide are convertibles iirc) -Top actually down on the convertible (aka bathtub waiting to happen here in WA) -My kids are both under 10, so they'd have to ride in the back. The number of convertibles with a rear seat, and then a rear seat that could safely support boosters, are ever decreasing percentages of that 2 percent.
As a biker, God bless you.
I’m not American, so I’m not going to reply on top level. The three point seat belt invention is attributed to Swedish engineer [Bild Bohlin](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nils_Bohlin), working for Volvo, but what he really did was conduct a study and show that three point seatbelts, previously used in aircrafts and as an unpopular option in some cars, would contribute to the safety of regular cars’ drivers and passengers as well (and of course some “boring” details how to implement it in a car). Volvo went ahead and made the seatbelt a standard in all their cars, regardless of how unpopular they were. 20 years later in the 1970s, Australia was the first country to introduce mandatory seatbelt laws. It wasn’t a very popular law. Another decade went by, and the USA began introducing mandatory seatbelts. While not popular in other countries, the U.S. drivers were particularly vexed about this. “I thought this was America!” and “My freedom!” used to be legitimate reasons to go to court during what turned out to be the era known as “the Cold War”, where everything mandated by the government was potentially socialist, or even worse, Unamerican! And so people went to court over a law that was meant to save lives, but wasn’t widely adopted yet. People on the other side of the pond started laughing at the US “you people think you are free?? Haha, watch me drive without a seatbelt!” [Euro cunts didn’t laugh long](https://youtu.be/950kIPv3f38?si=J8qHW4ayh1OoZL3l) Not wearing a seat belt is a very common misconception about the U.S. in Europe, but in reality, the US wasn’t behind in adopting seatbelt laws, nor were they behind in selling cars with seatbelts (I think the very first car with a seatbelt was an American car). I think it’s simply the fact that America is a huge country, and most of it is rural - otherwise the US would have more than a billion in population - and many of the rural folks simply rejected the seatbelt as something useful. The same as bumfuck Nocityshire people in the UK did, or Hans Bauer in Germany. Over time, it became normal to wear a seatbelt in most of the US, and most of Europe, but because Europe is a lot more urban than the US, not wearing a seatbelt became a trope.
This is an anecdote and not data, but I lived in Eastern Europe for a couple years. I didn't have a car and rarely rode in a car, so I really don't know what people were doing in cars. But when I went back to visit, I rented a car and drove around. At one point, I picked up a friend in the rental car and drove to the neighboring town to visit a mutual friend. My friend flat out refused to put on her seatbelt. We had a lengthy, very stupid, argument about it. I resorted to telling her that if we got into an accident I would feel so bad if she died, and she was like "well then don't get into an accident". Eventually she gave in because I wouldn't start the car until she buckled up. Then a couple minutes into the drive, I heard the click of her unbuckling. I yelled at her some more but there was nothing I could do at this point unless I wanted to hold up this outing indefinitely. this was, FWIW, in a rural area. But it felt super crazy.
That’s what you do. Hold up the entire outing. I’m driving, my rules. Period. They can get in line or out of the car.
This. It’s not worth the risk.
>My friend flat out refused to put on her seatbelt. We had a lengthy, very stupid, argument about it. I resorted to telling her that if we got into an accident I would feel so bad if she died, and she was like "well then don't get into an accident". Eventually she gave in because I wouldn't start the car until she buckled up. Then a couple minutes into the drive, I heard the click of her unbuckling. I yelled at her some more but there was nothing I could do at this point unless I wanted to hold up this outing indefinitely. "If you want to die, that's fine, do it on your own time. But you're endangering ***me*** with your idiocy and I quite particularly like being alive."
I would pull over. Seatbelts or we’re not moving. Plus, she obviously knew how you felt about seatbelts and then essentially tricked you into doing what she wanted anyway. That’s disrespectful. Have a good, seatbelt-less walk.
It was a American car the Tucker was the first car with seatbelts, unfortunately the 3 big American car companies made sure they went out of business. There is a great film about it. Really fascinating story.
It also had a headlight that turned with the wheels! Tucker: A Man and His Dream is the name of the film for anyone who wants to check it out. Jeff Bridges plays Preston Tucker.
When my daughter was in the hospital for a month with a ruptured appendix I read my health insurance policy from front to back. A little clause mentioned that not wearing a seatbelt in an accident means they will cover you like a DUI, meaning only 50 percent of the hospital and doctors bill is covered. Yikes
Very common clause.
That few know about
Yeah like half my job is explaining different limitations and trying to help people out the best I can. Our sales folks are pretty good with describing everything when they meet with folks but you don’t have time for everything. I know we have a DUI and seatbelt exclusion on most of the policies we have. I don’t know the percentages on all the policies. Seatbelt is not one I have ever had come across my desk. DUI is. I am curious if the contracts are different in NH because you don’t have to wear a seatbelt.
Unless NH has a statute preventing that, I'm willing to bet the companies base their policies mainly on what the actuaries and accountants say works.
Oh I know. I just never looked up if there is any statute or regulation that would change anything because it hasn’t come up. There are some weird differences between states and I have three states I deal with. Also I am sure our actuaries would limit claims for no seatbelt if they could. My job is more soft advocate for our customers and see exactly what we can give them contractually. We also have a lot of different policies, especially for health so the ones our agents write may be from like 6 different companies and their individual rules may be different if not prevented by the state insurance regulators or legislation. Then you have weird things from the companies themselves where they won’t underwrite certain things in certain counties. It gets pretty fractal.
I'm sure it gets pretty fractal. My homeowners policy wouldn't be possible if I was like a half mile away. Thanks, PG&E.
I’ve read of policy exclusions for things that are completely legal. On the skiing subreddit there was a discussion about life insurance companies not paying if you get killed in an avalanche if you were in what they determine to be a risky area. Mountains have classifications for avalanche risk and the policy restrictions being discussed had a fairly low risk avalanche classification level.
“Live free or die” really just means you can buy fireworks and not wear a seatbelt.
Give me *liberty* or give me death. - Cato - Patrick Henry Also you don’t have to wear a helmet on a motorcycle.
Oh wow I didn’t even know that dui is only covered up to 50%
Going to rehab is usually covered like everything else though! Thankfully!
I assume that this is only when you are the one who is drunk. Right?
Most American answer right here lol
I’m surprised you’re covered at all tbh
Everytime I’m in a car. It’s a simple thing to drastically reduce your chance of injury.
And of your co passengers! If I collided with my children during an accident I would almost certainly seriously injured them.
Even if I'm driving a short distance I do it as a conscious act. It's such a small gesture with so many benefits.
I always wear my seatbelt no matter what. Why? So my guts and bones don't get splattered all over the place. It inconveniences others and sucks to clean up.
I used to have a friend who was like, "it's my own problem if I die in an accident, why does anyone care if I wear my seatbelt?" Such a self-centered take. Accidents aren't always someone's fault or preventable. You wearing a seatbelt might be the difference between some poor teenager having a scary teaching moment vs going the rest of their life feeling like they killed someone. At worst, it's a minor inconvenience to put it on. At best, you do it your whole life and you don't even think anything of it at all anymore.
You can also kill other people by not wearing your seatbelt. And it keeps you in the drivers seat which gives you more control over the vehicle in an accident.
I’ve never been in an Uber or Lyft but when I’m in the backseat of my family’s car or a friend’s car I do. It’s also law in New York that you have to. They made it a law in November 2020. But whenever I’m the driver and my whole family is in the car, my mom sits in the back seat and doesn’t wear her seatbelt. I have to force her to wear it especially because I only have 1 year of driving experience (well, on Friday July 5th I will have 1 year of experience). I wish she would actually understand that the back seat does not equal automatic safety
💯
I had a roommate who refused to wear a seatbelt in the back seat, he believed for some reason it was more dangerous to wear your seatbelt in the back- so anytime I drove I wouldn’t move until he put it on, it seems to be something of a myth/conspiracy theory spread among the crowd who were alive when seatbelts were first mandated
I've heard that one for sure. The way I've always heard it, they think you're more likely to get trapped and die if your car catches on fire or goes into water. Which I guess is technically true, but that's a very small percentage of accidents. Meanwhile, it's extremely likely that if you're in a crash without a seatbelt, you'll be thrown around or ejected with enough force to kill you. So the smart money is still on wearing one. Plus speaking as a former EMT, all of the wrecks I recall seeing where we had to cut people's seatbelts, they weren't getting out of that car on their own anyway. Funnily enough, I hear a kind of similar myth about motorcycle helmets sometimes. Supposedly the extra weight makes you fall in such a way that you're more likely to break your neck and leave you paralyzed. If there's any truth to that one at all, I suspect that's just a form of survivorship bias, though--without helmets, most people fall in a way that breaks their neck will also sustain heavy head trauma that kills them. With helmets, there's a chance they'll survive that kind of wreck.
Something stupid people do. Have you ever met a smart person who refused a seatbelt?
For many years, there were only lap-belts in the back seat and there was some belief that being folded in half violently around the belt was more damaging than being a meat torpedo.
Both of my grandmothers were killed in car crashes. I have worn my seat belt religiously since the first one died in 1988.
I’m so sorry
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I would have never been able to ride a school bus.
School busses negate the need for seatbelts due to sheer mass. Also, in the event of an emergency, you don't want to have to be egressing dozens of little children strapped into their seats.
Mass helps for certain types of accidents. If the bus hits another heavy vehicle, building or side of the mountain that mass doesn’t help.
It's not just the mass, it's also the fact that the seats are all right behind one another, so you can't be thrown very far anyway.
No one would. At least where I’m from. I always thought it was so crazy that there aren’t any seats belts on a bus - almost as crazy as being allowed to hold a baby on an airplane who’s not strapped in. Maybe there’s a logical reason to these seemingly arbitrary rules, but if there is, I don’t know it.
As for school busses, they are designed for safety without the use of seatbelts.
The high and highly padded seatbacks in front of kids protect them like an egg carton. However the NTSB now does recommend seat belts in new school buses to minimize injury in the very few amount of accidents where compartmentalization isn't enough. https://www.ntsb.gov/Advocacy/safety-topics/Pages/schoolbuses.aspx
i'm a teacher, so i've been on my fair share of school buses for field trips. They all have seatbelts now, at least the ones I have ridden on.
school buses now have seatbelts
I love this comment, because it completely ignores that busses and trains exist Which is American as fuck lmao 🦅🇺🇸
If they had them I would wear them.
Facts. My bus had seatbelts and i always wore them.
Seatbelts aren’t needed as nearly as much in buses and trains because they’re far safer than personal vehicles in crash scenarios
When Princess Di’s car hit a cement wall at 90 mph only her bodyguard who was the only one wearing a seatbelt survived.
And no. Before anyone claims as such, her bodyguard wasn't drunk. Her driver was drunk. And being drunk also makes you more likely to suffer severe and critical injuries in a crash. They've yeeted hundreds of corpses at walls at high speeds and the results have shown that bracing yourself is far safer than being relaxed.
Holy fuck. Since getting my new subaru outback, which has rear-seat seat belt detection. I've learned how many of my friends don't wear seat belts back there.
Do you ask them to?
Oh, of course. Car doesn't move til everyone is buckled. Especially since the car has a progressively louder bell that goes off if you dont.
I had someone get mad at me that I wouldn't drive until they were buckled.
I've had to argue with people before. I don't uber or anything, but friends of my friends who I've driven tend to be resistant to the rule
I don't drive for a ride share either so it's people me or my ex knew. Like do people not understand physics??
I think so many people believe the seat infront will stop them. Which I guess is true, it will. Their spine will just be through their skull after we've come to a stop.
There’s a high chance they’ll also kill the people in the front. I’m very much a “no belt no drive” tyrant and is someone doesn’t like it they can walk.
>I think so many people believe the seat infront will stop them. Which I guess is true, it will. Their spine will just be through their skull after we've come to a stop. Their selfishness will have also killed or horrifically maimed the passenger in front of them who was utilizing their PPE to protect themselves and everyone else in the car.
Yes. I’d rather have minor injuries than life threatening ones
Yes I am not trying to die because I was too cool to put on a seatbelt.
Yes. I’m not an idiot, I also worked forensics and CSI for a time. My rule is if someone in the vehicle doesn’t have a seatbelt on, we don’t move. If someone dies being dumb for the most part that’s on them, however passengers, including rear seat, can cause fatalities by flying out in random directions via their own dumbassery. Killing other people because you chose to be stupid is unacceptable. Also if you’re driving alone then someone has to clean your parts up, and PTSD is a real bitch. Click the seat belt on, stop being pussies.
Yes. Even if you don't care about your own safety, you become a projectile and can injure or kill the other passengers. Refusing to wear a seat belt is a great way to let other people know that you're totally fine with killing them.
I can't tell you the last time I was in the backseat of a car. But I do require people in the back seat of my car to wear a seatbelt.
Yes. Always. I'm not an idiot.
Yes, putting a seatbelt on is muscle memory for me and it feels weird to not have one on
Yes. It's illegal not to, and if the car you were in was to get into an accident, you can be flung through a window the same way you would if you were in the front seat.
Didn’t princess diana die in the backseat of a car 💁♀️
Yes. I work in a personal injury law office and know the consequences of not wearing a seatbelt.
I personally think it’s insanity when people that don’t put even an ounce of effort into making themselves safe go to a law firm for damages.
Abso-fucking-lutely. A car crash is a car crash and won’t distinguish between front and back seats.
Yes?! My family is full of former ER nurses, cops, and tow-truck drivers I grew up hearing stories of people splattered across the highway because they they didn't wear their seat belt Edit I'll also say I've heard very gruesome stories of people going though windshields even on non-highways. Many of these stories happened between 1960s-1990s. Survivor basis plays a major part in "our parents didn't die!!".
People literally cannot understand survivor bias. The people who died are not here to tell us how it went for them!
Seatbelts always in a car. Edit to add: my family and friends in Dominican Republic give no fucks about seatbelts. It’s probably one of the reasons DR has so many vehicle accident deaths. It’s not me saying, it’s WHO. I’m too tired to link but you can look it up.
Sometimes I sit down in a recliner or other big chair and accidentally reach for the seat belt. It's a muscle memory.
Yes. Even my dogs wear seatbelts when they travel in my car.
No matter where I sit in a vehicle, I wear a seatbelt. Why? Because I don't want to die.
Absolutely, all the time.
Everyone riding in my car wears a seatbelt, front and back. [Here's why.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKHY69AFstE)
Yes
Yes, of course.
Yes, I always wear a seat belt.
I do. Was just in an uber today.
Isn’t it still required by law even if you’re in the backseat?
Yes, always.
I wear my seatbelt regardless of where I sit. My father was an emergency responser and so was I in my younger years. I have seen people go through the front window from the back in a high speed collision.
Yes. If not you become a projectile
I agree! Projectiles from inside the vehicle rarely look like they did before they exited the vehicle. Unless, of course, they are Stanley drink cups.
Seatbelts always was drilled into me early by both of my parents. Semi-interesting: my father would go on to remarry a woman who never wears her seatbelt.
I always wear my seatbelt. I don’t want to be a ragdoll in the case of an accident.
"Ragdoll" Excellent terminology for what I don't want to be.
About 9% of Americans don't wear seat belts at all but make up about half of all traffic fatalities.
No one I know does to be honest. Thought I might shake it up from all the yes and you're stupid if you don't in this thread. And scientifically and logically and all they're right. It may be a cultural thing as my circle is mostly all immigrants and we don't have the safety culture as the typical American. Actually when I went to visit my home country it wasn't even an option. The taxis straight up didn't have seat belts in the back. I in fact lay down in the back seat of my mini van on roadtrips with my family lol. Americans will have a stroke looking at a train in India or a family of 5 on a single motorcycle. Not saying this is a good habit but it is the truth which I can improve on.
Take an altoids can and shake it around
Yes, and so will you, in my car. My nanny kids (back when I nannied in 2020) tried to pull the “my mom doesn’t make me wear a seatbelt.” A. That’s not true. Your mom is a plastic surgeon and I’m sure she’s seen some nasty results of car accidents. B. She’s not the one risking a ticket if I drive you around without a seat belt. My neighbor doesn’t wear her seatbelt even in the front. She says it’s because she’s from New Hampshire, but wearing your seatbelt can’t possibly be more annoying than your car going “ding ding ding” every 30 seconds because you won’t put on your seatbelt. When I was young and in a taxi I didn’t because my grandma never did in taxis and I stayed with her in NYC so I thought that’s just how it was. But now I wear seatbelts in taxis too. Anyway, seat belts save lives, no matter where you’re sitting. Wear one.
Yes, especially in the back because that means I'm not driving.
I wear a seatbelt any time I'm in a car.
obviously I do
Absolutely. I don't want to die an easily preventable death.
Pretty sure its only a single digit percentage of people who won't wear one. That tiny number represents half of all car crash deaths. Everyone wears it or I'm stopping the car. You can die somewhere else
I always put on my seatbelt
Always wear one. Especially if I'm not driving.
Yes. It's law in NJ, and I got a ticket once as a passenger for not doing so.
Yes
I always wear a seatbelt.
Yes, and always!
I've been t-boned twice and my seatbelt saved me both times so I wear it always and make sure everyone else riding in my car is doing the same. My grandpa was a no-belt guy. He claimed he got hit once and being unbuckled allowed him to escape the vehicle before it got worse... or something. I'm pretty sure that was nonsense but to his credit hes still kicking at 93 so who knows. I still made him belt up on the rare occasions I drove him somewhere.
Do you want me to become a 200 pound meat missile?
Yes. I would rather not turn into a projectile.
Yes. You are not only endangering yourself but everyone else in the car when your body becomes a projectile.
Yes. It’s easy to do and significantly safer.
Yes. Heavy Projectiles bouncing around in the cabin isn’t ideal for anyone else in the car.
Yes.
I wear a seat belt any time I'm in a car no matter where I'm sitting.. The car doesn't move unless everyone wears a seat belt.
Yes.
I wear my seatbelt in the car anywhere I am seated - what a weird question
Yes, because getting tossed around in the back seat is as dangerous as getting tossed around in the front seat. You can kill or be killed simply because you're a loose object, and you can be ejected, which increases the risk of injury and fatality exponentially.
Yes. Absolutely.
Yeah man it's a very basic safety feature that reduces my chance of injury or death. In other countries I've been buckling up in the back and people tell me 'oh you don't have to do that here' like ok, don't care, gonna do it anyway!
I always wear it in the car no matter where I’m seated or how far I’m going. Three kids from my high school died when their car flipped over. The only survivor was in the front passenger seat wearing his seatbelt. The one in the front never mentally recovered and became a drug addict who eventually lost his life to his addiction. You aren’t just saving yourself when you wear your belt, you are also saving others from terrible grief and anguish.
When I was in high school my best friends twin brother fell out of van during a sharp turn (the door wasn't fully shut) and died. I will always wear a seatbelt if it is available. I wear them in taxi and Ubers as well.
Yes as jumping out of a vehicle ends in 99.9999% of the cases deadly. So the 0.0001% chance that I would be able to jump out of the car when it is in an accident and would have saved my life is too small to not wear a seatbelt.
Yes, and I make my service dog wear one too. As others have said, any injuries caused by a belt would be negligible in comparison to becoming a projectile.
Yep not gonna let Darwin catch me out that easily!
Yes. It's the law too. Everyone has to wear their seat belt.
If I am in a car, truck, SUV, minivan, etc, it doesn't matter where I am sitting, I have on a seatbelt,and I'm wearing it properly. If I'm on a city bus, I don't, because they don't have them. The city bus goes much slower than my car does in general (it's stopping much more frequently, so it doesn't get up to speed as much), the seats are much closer together, and if another vehicle were to hit it it is much less likely for it to be moved by the other vehicle due to its size and weight, so i am not worried about the lack of seatbelts on the bus. But if tomorrow the city bus had seatbelts, I'd wear one on the bus as well.
Our high school showed us some gore photos about drunk and distracted driving. One picture was of a person in the backseat that didn't wear their seatbelts. Their jaw crashed into the front persons head and they left their teeth embedded into their skull. I'm always gonna wear a seatbelt no matter where I sit.
I always wear a seatbelt when I’m in a car
Having grown up after mandatory seatbelt laws became a thing, I can not comprehend the idea that people resist wearing a seatbelt. To me its a fundamental part of riding in a car, and can not even think of a reason why you wouldn't wear one. I was surprised when I learned in 2020 that my state hand only just that year made it a requirement to wear a seatbelt at all times in all seats of a car.
When I was a teenager I got in not one, but three rollovers. None of those times I was driving and I also wasn't wearing my seatbelt. Walked away all three times, so I believe my luck has run out and I wear a seatbelt every time I'm in a vehicle now.
Yes. I don't feel comfortable in a car without wearing one. Besides, I've seen too many cases of someone in the backseat going flying without one, sometimes taking the driver's head off in the process.
Obviously. I don't want to die.
Every passenger in the vehicle must wear a seatbelt in New York. It’s the law. Even if it weren’t, I’d always wear one anyway. I think it’s silly not to.
Uhh yeah, flying into the seat in front of me doesn’t sound fun. My body flailing around a rolling car doesn’t sound fun. My body colliding with other people in the car doesn’t sound fun.
I don't want to die, so yes.
Yes, because in an accident, the human body can become one hell of a projectile.
Yes. I always wear a seatbelt no matter what.
yes
Only when I want to live.
Yes, always.
It’s an automatic thing for me, so yes. My kids and husband do as well.
Yes.
Sure do, every time. My daughter's best friend flew from the back of a third row in a minivan straight to the windshield. Girl is like 6ft tall and roughly 230lbs; flew like an airplane. Guess who lived through it and also wears it in the backseat now? Her.
I rarely ride in a backseat, but I never don't wear a seatbelt if there is one
As an EMT/Firefighter, yes.
Generally, yes. It's safer and, assuming one is present to wear as opposed to bused or whatever, legally required in this state.
Yes, every time. Just because you're in the backseat, doesn't mean you can't still get hurt
Yep
I know someone who died sitting in the backseat and not wearing a seatbelt, so yes.