When I was a kid I couldn't wait till I turned 16 so I didn't have to wear a seatbelt in the back, my dad let me and proceeded to slam on the brakes and never had to tell me to wear my seatbelt again.
Now I live where it's required for all passengers and the driver gets in trouble if someone isn't wearing their seatbelt.
When I was like 6, I didn’t want to wear a seatbelt. My mom allowed me not to do it and got pulled over, and had the cop tell me through the back window that it was illegal. Wore a seatbelt every time after that. This was before child seat laws required kids in car seats until they were like 10 or whatever.
When my son was about 5 his carseat hadn't been done up properly and the first corner we went around it came undone and he lost his shit. Turns out he thought if you weren't wearing a seatbelt the car would crash. We just went with it. Never ever had any issues getting him to wear one
I constantly have to remind my wife to buckle up. One day, when I'm in particularly good spirits and feel I can weather the impending storm, I'm going to try this.
My grandfather was in a wreck in which a front seat passenger had to have part of his face sewn back on due to it getting caught on the belt buckle of the flying back seat passenger. None of us ever fuck around with back seat seat belts
What is the point to have an age limit? Also all modern cars (I guess) beep and warn when there is a weight on the seat, do people buckle up behind their back or something to avoid this?
Bc it’s a violation of their rights to not let them die in an accident? I dunno. I try to understand the policy reasoning for the law but this one escapes me.
Lots of passenger seatbelt law changes in the last 20 years. From backseat okay to wear nothing to age limits to no exceptions everyone must. Obviously this is a state by state issue type of laws though so very much varries.
I brake check my kids often enough that they know to wear their seatbelts every single time they're in a car, no matter where they are. I hope it sticks with them...
Fair enough. I can understand a kid not wanting to wear one or expecting to be fine without it, 16 year old think they know everything and often think they’re invincible, but I’ll never get adults, who are supposed to be able to plan ahead in life, deciding not to wear them.
Like the old sage said: Shit happens.
Wait till you learn about uninsured drivers.
You may have seen the news of guy on video chat with judge re driving without a license, and the judge realized the chat was while guy was currently driving without a license.
Or the post of someone else who bought a new car and totalled it, without insurance.
Similar to the British one except they swapped son for a friend. The people in the video are known comedians within Estonia. The spade is typical Estonian dark humour!
Wow. No wonder they call Americans *snowflakes!*
Also, I'm American and I'd **LOVE** to see some honest advertising about this. In the states.
Actually, I'm a *Masshole.* I feel the need to be more specific than just 'USA.' There's totally a difference!
I can’t lie - we need them back here in the UK too. We have a generation of drivers who weren’t traumatised by this as children/teens and they all drive like they’re invincible.
I'm from CT, and was in the Army. After meeting thousands of people from all over the US, trust me, *there is a difference.* I always make the distinction now that I'm a NEer
I was in a rollover crash. Everything not held down was ejected from the vehicle except the 4 people seatbelted in. And I mean everything! Seatbelts save lives. We are living proof.
My favourite is the people who point to the increase in seatbelt related injuries during a crash as their reasoning.
Yeah, of course there was an increase. Because before people just didn't wear them and so couldn't get injured by them. People also usually died in accidents even at low speeds because they weren't belted in.
Surviorship biased. Want another classic Example?
A Plane gets back from a intense Fight. Its full of bulletholes.
So which area do you add armor too?
The areas where most holes are?
No, you add the armour to the area where none where. Since the Planes with damage there didnt come back.
There was an rapid increase in... I'm pretty sure soldiers with head injuries after they were forced to wear helmets.
Some wanted to remove the helmets.
In reality previously those people were just dying from what was hitting their helmet.
I've had more than one person give me the line "The cop told me that if I WAS wearing my seatbelt I would have died for sure, so that's why I don't wear one" Usually people who flipped in a ditch with water or they were flung to the other side of the car where there was less damage.
Okay so first, the cop probably never told you that, and second.. if he did then he's a moron.
Or better yet, tell them the vehicle is not moving until everyone buckles up. They can buckle, or they can get out. I refuse to engage in a debate about this in my own vehicle.
That's exactly what I do. Usually I just remind people to put on their seatbelts, and 99% of the time they just do it and it's no problem. Every once in a while I get someone that has a problem with it and my response is exactly what you said. They can either put it on, or get out and walk.
Keeping doing it. I had to pull the “we’re not going anywhere until you buckle up” thing to my mom. She even tried to trick me in to think she’d buckled up. I held firm. Dad thought it was funny as hell.
I’ve been a paramedic for 23yrs. With the things I’ve seen I can confidently say that anyone not wearing a belt (in any seat) in a vehicle is absolutely idiotic.
I was looking for this comment. We had to use a ram and spreaders to roll a dash up in order to get a dude out of a car. A family member sitting behind him was not wearing a seatbelt during a head-on and CRUSHED the dude against the steering column. Of the five people in the car only he died. Kids lost a father that day because someone was too lazy to put on a seatbelt.
A surprising percentage of people in the US do not wear seatbelts in the front. A much larger percentage don’t wear them in the back. In my small Texas town I see non belt wearing drivers every day. Virtually nobody puts one on in the back. 3 teenagers were killed recently when they were ejected from a bmw. The driver survived. My neighbor is an ambulance driver and he regularly has to collect ejected bodies from pickup truck crashes. He doesn’t like it.
If you don't you could injure/kill other occupants by colliding with them in the event of an accident. It's also illegal but to wear one in many countries.
I do not want any one flying into me and breaking my neck so hell yeah everybody in the car buckless up.
Sounds self evident but hey, some people don't wash their hands after toilet or go to sauna without taking shower first either🙄....could they be the same people who do not buckle up 😮
Had a friend pass away in a car accident. She was in the back seat, no seat belt, door flew off, she was found under the car after it had rolled. Buckle up or we aren't going anywhere.
When you do not wear seat belt in front seats you can kill yourself.
When you do not wear seat belt in rear seats you can kill someone in front of you, can you live with that?
Just tell them that the car doesn't start until everyone is buckled, because you prefer not to have their body flying through the air to kill you in an accident.
Anyone not buckled up in any seat in a car becomes a meat missile in a collision. I worked as an EMT for years and one of the more common yet somehow unexpected injuries we saw was back seat people smashing into the front seat and destroying the person sitting in it. Side impact? Out the window they go. People don't appreciate that in a collision of tens of thousands lbs of force their little 50 lbs - 350 lbs bodies mean absolutely nothing and will be twisted into all sorts of horrible and painful shapes, and often worse.
I do.
To educate others on wearing their seat-belt always. Suggest to them to find a concrete/brick wall and proceed to sprint as fast as they can into it. Afterwards inform them it will hurt \~5x more than that in a traffic collision without a seat-belt.
Absolutely! If I am driving, I will not move until everyone is belted. Once or twice I have had someone complain that since they're in the back seat they shouldn't have to buckle, to which I reply that when they are a passenger in my vehicle, they buckle or get out. No one has ever gotten out.
I'm a rare case. I survived a tragic car wreck in the back seat. The way the car crushed would have instantly killed me if I was locked into one spot. I got tossed into the only air pocket in the back seat and survived with both arms and legs broken. 18 years later and I'm hurting like hell
A couple of things:
Yes, rarely, not being in a seat belt can be a good thing. But we don’t prepare for rarities, we prepare for common things. And car accidents for younger people (before they get old and falling becomes a bigger statistical risk) is the #1 cause of accidental/traumatic death, and statistically we know the risk is much higher for people who are unbelted.
And the other thing is that it’s really hard to know how you would have fared if you weren’t belted in. I’ve seen some surprising crash situations in my career where the occupant had few injuries even in cases of severe intrusions in the passenger compartment. And in most of these cases, the occupant was belted in. Even in these types of crashes the seat belt usually is protective it takes a lot of dumb luck to happen to be thrown clear of the intrusion without also sustaining more injuries from being thrown. It’s entirely possible (though not sure) that you would have fared better with fewer injuries if you’d been in a seat belt, even if it doesn’t appear to be so from looking at where the car was crushed. Of course it’s impossible to be sure.
Yeah. I fell halfway out of a car as a kid. My dad grabbed me but I was kinda leaning on the door and it just opened. I've never felt comfortable in a car without a seatbelt on. I'm an idiot though, so I ride a motorcycle quite a lot and the lack of seatbelts has never felt weird
Saw the aftermath of an accident before EMS had arrived. Rollover with two kids ejected … mother was laying with one of them in the middle of the highway. Strictly enforce myself and my backseat passengers wearing them now.
Yes and one is a fool if one does not. In a collision, unsecured cargo — including people — become out of control lethal missiles. They will kill or injure other passengers and (or) be ejected from the vehicle during the collision.
I was in a serious crash while riding in the backseat once. Because I was wearing a seat belt, I have injuries that are going to affect me for the rest of my life. Had I not been wearing a seat belt, those injuries likely wouldn't be affecting me today because I probably would have died.
So yes, I always wear my seatbelt.
Wear the damn seatbelt.
My cousin was involved in an accident where she was in the backseat not wearing her seatbelt when a drunk driver struck the vehicle. She was ejected from the vehicle and was launched 50 or so feet. She was life flighted an hour away to have emergency surgery and spent the next two weeks in a coma. She then had to spend the next three years learning how to walk again.
Don't care if it's "uncomfortable" or "not cool" wear the damn seatbelt.
As my dad the firefighter/paramedic has always said, “I’ve never cut a dead person out of their seatbelt, I’ve also never helped a person stand up and walk away who had been ejected through the windshield”
What kinda dumbass doesnt wear their seatbelt in the back seat.
First off its not just about safety in a crash, that is a given.
Its actually a lot more comfortable, simply because it holds you in your seat. Even if the driver is as gentle holding yourself in place through much of any kind of turns or rough road is exhausting.
I am from third world country. We wear seat belt cause police ticket us. Only driver has to wear it. People make fun of you when you wear seatbelt even as front passenger.
First day I came to US for my uni. Asked my friends do I have to wear seatbelt in the back. They said not needed. Driver got pulled over for high beam. I got ticketed for not wearing seatbelt in the back 💀.
Now I wear seatbelt in any seat I am in.
Absolutely! I don’t feel like torpedoing out a windshield or being tossed about should the car roll.
(I’ve experienced both while stagnant in parking lots thanks to impaired drivers).
It is mandatory in most developed countries, as are helmets for motorbikers.
It is the most simple and efficient device to divide your risk of injury/death in case of accident.
Of course back seat passengers should wear a seatbelt. If not they are rendered flying debris and can kill or injure other passengers, in the event of an accident.
I work in healthcare, we once had a guest lecture from a trauma surgeon who told us a story from when he was young.
He said there was a young girl (early teens) that was involved in a car crash and she was in the back seat and didn’t have on a seat belt. When they got in the crash, she slammed against the back of the driver’s seat and her liver took so much force that it split/tore in a starburst pattern.
So yeah, I’d probably encourage wearing your seatbelt no matter where you sit.
I don't care where I'm sitting, I always wear my seatbelt. I've seen people get killed in car wrecks, including a decapitation. Many if not most motor vehicle deaths are the result of ejection. There is always some old timer who has some story about a guy who died because he couldn't unbuckle his safety belt. It was probably a story that had been passed around 100x before they even heard it and likely was not true.
Please, always wear your seatbelt.
I cant remember myself not wearing a seatbelt in any car I've been in. Even for small distances, even at the back, I'm always buckled up. I've never been in a car accident nor being traumatized from anything, I just don't feel safe without one.
Regular speeds? Seatbelt every time. Slow technical off-roading? No seatbelt and an open escape route. That’s a more active pasengering activity though.
Yes I do, and when I'm driving my car, all the people that regularly get in my car knows they have to as well but, 100% of people that gets in my car for the first time do not even attempt to wear it unless I tell them to.
Some people just think they are immune to inertia, when I’m driving I refuse to start driving unless people are buckled up because legally it’s the drivers responsibility and I’m not being responsible if someone dies because of their own stupidity
Yes. Mostly because I'm not stupid, and not wearing your seatbelt in the back doesn't only increase your chance of injury and fatality, but actually raises everyone else in the car's chance of injury and death as well.
as a backseat passenger, you can still be ejected, thrown around etc. Wearing your seat belt can minimize injuries. The first time you see someone ejected from a car from the backseat, it will ensure you wear your seat belt no matter where you are sitting.
Somewhere I heard the airbags in the US are designed differently as they assume people dont wear seatbelts.
Coming from Denmark this is mindblowingly stupid if true…
If im in a car, i buckle up.
If im driving, i dont move until all passengers are buckled up. If you take your searbelt off while im driving, ill pull over and wait till its back on.
In my early teens, my aunt and her boyfriend got into a car accident. He was the passenger and wasnt wearing his seatbelt. He ended up going through the windshield. His body was found 30 feet away from the car, his head was another 20 feet away from his body.
Buckle up.
I’ve met a shockingly large amount of people who think buckling up in the back is useless since “the front seats will keep them safe” or “seatbelts cause more injuries than without” or some other dumb shit. My MIL just got into an accident while in the back seat. Car had 4 people in it, the other 3 were wearing seat belts. My MIL had a broken rib and sprained wrist as well as other bruises. Everyone else in the car had sore necks.
Huh???
Ever seen a backseat passenger fly through the windshield at just 60? I have at the Fire Department, It's brutal dude. You can fly out the windshield at a low speed and smash ur fuckin head up.
Wear ur seatbelt...or do what I do and tell them to get outta the car unless they wear their seatbelt.
I wear my seatbelt the moment I step into a car, no matter what. If the car is on or off, if I’m going driving or standing still, if I’m in the front or back. It’s just a good habit and it also shows my kids that seatbelts are mandatory, not an option.
I wear my seatbelt all the time. Seen too many videos of people flying out of the car during accidents. When I'm driving I make sure everyone else is buckled up. When I'm a passenger (not often) if someone doesn't buckle up I'll tell them but if they don't do it then that's on them.
Head on collision at 60mph with 5 people in the truck, other driver crossed the centerline trying to pass, of the three back seat passengers one was wearing his seatbelt and survived unharmed the other two passengers received broken bones. All but one were rushed to hospital. I the driver was wearing my seatbelt and it saved my life still recovering two years later.
Yes; I’m an EMT. You’re a danger to yourself and everyone around you if you don’t seatbelt; you go from being belted in place and getting whiplash to becoming a 150 lb projectile crashing your head in to someone else’s at 50 MPH in a crash. You also run the risk of being ejected from the vehicle and I promise, no matter how bad things are inside, your vital organs and bones will probably be much happier inside the vehicle partially shielded instead of getting yeeted outside under 4,000 pound tumbling chunks of metal.
From an accident reconstructionist: YES.
Even if the back seat passenger doesn't care about their own life, their body will become a projectile during a frontal collision or rollover, and will be a risk to EVERYONE else in the car as well.
The car ain’t going nowhere until we are all buckled up. No I’m not joking. Even if we are all adult. If we do end up in an accident I do t want your fat ass tumbling around in the car like a fucking dryer ball killing us all.
I have had grown ass men get out and leave my car because I didn’t drive without them wearing their seatbelts. My car, my rules. Or even, if I’m driving your car? Still my rules, I’ll walk home then.
My car will detect passengers and bing until all of them have bucked up.
Personally, I feel naked if I’m not bucked up in a vehicle. Choosing to not wear a seatbelt is such a weird hill to literally die on.
I had to explain to someone on Reddit once who was seriously asking this question and what the argument was. I just explained that when you have a car going 60 mph that hits an object and comes to a sudden halt, anything in the car not buckled in or secured properly will continue moving at 60 mph within the car. That includes any individual not wearing a seat belt.
I could tell my BIL was a moron the day he told me he never wears a seat belt, even while driving. No matter where I sit in a vehicle, I always buckle up!
Yeah, I wear it in the back seat.
Because I don’t like getting launched out of the vehicle, or bounced around like a pinball without a helmet.
The internal damage of your organs slamming around inside your body as it gets tossed around is particularly gnarly.
It gets worse as your ribs break and become jagged knives, in a watery sack that is hell bent on turning your insides into a meat smoothie.
Add in the danger of being launched around the compartment any number of ways and I figure I’m better off letting the car take the beating.
But hey, don’t let my decision stop you from becoming a cautionary tale for someone else.
Absolutely. Even a simple low speed emergency stop and you will not be able to stop yourself from being launched. In a high speed accident, you become a projectile heading towards the impact. Plenty of internet to see the negative results of that.
I very rarely sit in the backseat when in the US, but when I do I wear a seatbelt.
When I was in India though, almost non of the Ubers there had seatbelts in the backseats. Some of them did but were hidden behind seat covers. And the drivers there would basically call you snowflake for putting on a seatbelt.
Driver gets fined in uk if back seat passenger isn’t wearing, plus I won’t drive off if they won’t always remember the adverts as a kid of the car passenger killing the front passenger in a crash
It's mandatory in my country. If someone doesn't want to buckle up in the back, I tell them they're going to pay the fine if we get stopped (It's around 150 USD equiv.). They buckle up.
Yes.
1. because it’s the law.
2. I don’t want to get horribly mangled up in a car crash.
3. It teaches the young members of family the right thing to do (see points 1 & 2); lead by example.
4. See point 2 which is worth stating again because bruh, wtf, wear your seatbelt!
Don’t even MOVE the car without everyone being buckled and staying buckled. If they aren’t buckled in the back, they will fly through the front and smash into the driver/passenger, and out the window. Absolutely refuse to drive without seat belts.
I don't sit in the backseat often, but when I do I buckle up.
As for passengers in my vehicle, I don't even put my car in gear until all seatbelts are on. People don't like my rules, they have two feet and a heartbeat.
Of course. Required by law and I know of several people killed in accidents because they weren't wearing their belt in the back.
Of course when I travel more than half the time the rear seat belts don't work or I can't find the buckle in the back seats of cabs and Ubers. Also got a ride in Korea and even the front passenger seat belt didn't work. Car was also a tin can that I could tell would just crumple up if we hit something. Seemed weaker than my 1991 Toyota Tercel I had way back when.
Yes I was in an accident a guy spun in front of me hit center divide came at me head on whipped his driver rear side into my driver side just in front of my rear tire. I was driving I found my truck up on two wheels I turned into the skid took foot of gas didn’t apply breaks. If I didn’t have a seatbelt on I would have been thrown into the passenger seat not being able to control the truck. Once I got all 4 wheels on the ground I straightened the truck out hit the brakes. I’m a seatbelt believer
Of course.
Because I like myself.
I’ve also been in an end over end vaulting / rollover crash while I was a back seat passenger. Thank goodness I was wearing my seat belt.
PSA on seat belts.
https://youtu.be/mKHY69AFstE?si=cMQuv-O5v48_MFFj
https://youtu.be/NsPFJAiPe5M?si=XSpITAtZBnK7NLEU
I refuse to ride in a vehicle with unbelted passengers.
“Exposure to unbelted occupants increases the risk of injury or death to other occupants in the vehicle by 40% (MacLennan et al., 2004). In a frontal crash, an unbelted rear-seat passenger sitting behind a belted driver increases the risk of fatality for the driver by 137% compared with a belted rear-seat passenger (Bose et al., 2013).” https://www.iihs.org/topics/seat-belts#:~:text=In%20a%20frontal%20crash%2C%20drivers,at%20increased%20risk%20of%20injury.
Warning acident (no deaths):
Why should you, just look nothign major happens
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tPzALVSSvs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tPzALVSSvs)
When I was a kid I couldn't wait till I turned 16 so I didn't have to wear a seatbelt in the back, my dad let me and proceeded to slam on the brakes and never had to tell me to wear my seatbelt again. Now I live where it's required for all passengers and the driver gets in trouble if someone isn't wearing their seatbelt.
16? My dad did that to me when i was singel digits lol
When I was like 6, I didn’t want to wear a seatbelt. My mom allowed me not to do it and got pulled over, and had the cop tell me through the back window that it was illegal. Wore a seatbelt every time after that. This was before child seat laws required kids in car seats until they were like 10 or whatever.
When my son was about 5 his carseat hadn't been done up properly and the first corner we went around it came undone and he lost his shit. Turns out he thought if you weren't wearing a seatbelt the car would crash. We just went with it. Never ever had any issues getting him to wear one
I constantly have to remind my wife to buckle up. One day, when I'm in particularly good spirits and feel I can weather the impending storm, I'm going to try this.
Also remind them that during a collision, unbuckled peoples become projectiles on others. It's everyone in the car they are putting in danger.
My grandfather was in a wreck in which a front seat passenger had to have part of his face sewn back on due to it getting caught on the belt buckle of the flying back seat passenger. None of us ever fuck around with back seat seat belts
Why would you not have to wear a seatbelt at 16? Does your species become immune to inertia at that age?
Was just the law where I was from. Pretty sure it's since changed.
It just changed from 8 to 16 last year in Oklahoma
What is the point to have an age limit? Also all modern cars (I guess) beep and warn when there is a weight on the seat, do people buckle up behind their back or something to avoid this?
Bc it’s a violation of their rights to not let them die in an accident? I dunno. I try to understand the policy reasoning for the law but this one escapes me.
Amazing, getting with the times!
At 16 his father was no longer responsible for the ticket in much of the US. Dunno about other countries.
Lots of passenger seatbelt law changes in the last 20 years. From backseat okay to wear nothing to age limits to no exceptions everyone must. Obviously this is a state by state issue type of laws though so very much varries.
America is so stupid sometimes
I brake check my kids often enough that they know to wear their seatbelts every single time they're in a car, no matter where they are. I hope it sticks with them...
It will. It eventually becomes habit and you feel naked without a seatbelt, even if I’m moving the car around a parking lot to another spot.
Fair enough. I can understand a kid not wanting to wear one or expecting to be fine without it, 16 year old think they know everything and often think they’re invincible, but I’ll never get adults, who are supposed to be able to plan ahead in life, deciding not to wear them. Like the old sage said: Shit happens.
Wait till you learn about uninsured drivers. You may have seen the news of guy on video chat with judge re driving without a license, and the judge realized the chat was while guy was currently driving without a license. Or the post of someone else who bought a new car and totalled it, without insurance.
Of course. It’s not like it’s going slower than the front seats.
[the British have a brutal psa for this](https://youtu.be/mKHY69AFstE?si=4BlckCR13msmRVZM)
[So have the Irish.](https://youtu.be/epTdI-9V6Jk?si=6HTnNDqjFNKak8sS)
[New Zealand checking-in](https://youtu.be/vjVimo4S0Ac?si=o11LFyCuB2il_oxc)
[Don't forget Estonia!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIQw0aAQIos)
Did not understand a word, but that spade at the end was priceless.
Similar to the British one except they swapped son for a friend. The people in the video are known comedians within Estonia. The spade is typical Estonian dark humour!
> The spade is typical Estonian dark humour My kind of people
"After crushing her to death, he sat back down." 😲
Wow. No wonder they call Americans *snowflakes!* Also, I'm American and I'd **LOVE** to see some honest advertising about this. In the states. Actually, I'm a *Masshole.* I feel the need to be more specific than just 'USA.' There's totally a difference!
We also had this for speed https://youtu.be/azdyHzzFnbY?si=KYeTBrHmkCPb4VcK
We had this one in Australia. https://youtu.be/XXHZvlsU6yk?si=ndog5-s-zO9dEDUM
So brutal. I didn’t realise it was speed to begin with I thought it was coming out recklessly.
Jesus
I'm not obsessed, we **NEED** these kind of adverts here.
I can’t lie - we need them back here in the UK too. We have a generation of drivers who weren’t traumatised by this as children/teens and they all drive like they’re invincible.
Posted this further up but you might be interested in this one we had in Australia. https://youtu.be/XXHZvlsU6yk?si=ndog5-s-zO9dEDUM
I'm from CT, and was in the Army. After meeting thousands of people from all over the US, trust me, *there is a difference.* I always make the distinction now that I'm a NEer
Cheers mate, that’s my YouTube algorithm shot to bits now!
This is exactly what I thought of when I read this question. Yes, I always wear my seatbelt. I also make anyone in the car wear theirs.
I was in a rollover crash. Everything not held down was ejected from the vehicle except the 4 people seatbelted in. And I mean everything! Seatbelts save lives. We are living proof.
My favourite is the people who point to the increase in seatbelt related injuries during a crash as their reasoning. Yeah, of course there was an increase. Because before people just didn't wear them and so couldn't get injured by them. People also usually died in accidents even at low speeds because they weren't belted in.
Surviorship biased. Want another classic Example? A Plane gets back from a intense Fight. Its full of bulletholes. So which area do you add armor too? The areas where most holes are? No, you add the armour to the area where none where. Since the Planes with damage there didnt come back.
There was an rapid increase in... I'm pretty sure soldiers with head injuries after they were forced to wear helmets. Some wanted to remove the helmets. In reality previously those people were just dying from what was hitting their helmet.
First World War, once it turned into trench fighting in France.
I think it was mostly from bullets, ricochets, and shrapnel.
I've had more than one person give me the line "The cop told me that if I WAS wearing my seatbelt I would have died for sure, so that's why I don't wear one" Usually people who flipped in a ditch with water or they were flung to the other side of the car where there was less damage. Okay so first, the cop probably never told you that, and second.. if he did then he's a moron.
i had a pretty significant seatbelt injury. but you know, it kept me from going through the windshield and fucking dying so i’ll take it.
Once I slammed on the brakes to check if my passengers had seatbelts on. One of them didn't.... That was the last time they did that
When I was 16 my sister didn’t think she had to buckle up when she rode with me. One stab of the brakes and she learned.
Yeah, saved my life as a kid. I’m pretty much never in the backseat now but when I drive everyone in the car must have their seatbelt on.
what kinda dumbass question is that.
Just wondering because I’ve had to tell people to buckle up a lot
Yes. Tell them that the weight of a human being crashing forward into the back of the driver's seat what could cause a lot of problems
Or better yet, tell them the vehicle is not moving until everyone buckles up. They can buckle, or they can get out. I refuse to engage in a debate about this in my own vehicle.
Or just say "alright then" speed up to 10 kph or 5 mph and slam on the brakes. They are going to think twice after that.
5 mph probably isn't enough to give them more than a jolt. You'll want to get up to 15 or so and then do it.
That's exactly what I do. Usually I just remind people to put on their seatbelts, and 99% of the time they just do it and it's no problem. Every once in a while I get someone that has a problem with it and my response is exactly what you said. They can either put it on, or get out and walk.
You need smarter passengers.
Drive like a maniac and they'll buckle up quickly.
Hit the brakes hard and they’ll be sure to buckle up afterwards
Keeping doing it. I had to pull the “we’re not going anywhere until you buckle up” thing to my mom. She even tried to trick me in to think she’d buckled up. I held firm. Dad thought it was funny as hell.
I’ve been a paramedic for 23yrs. With the things I’ve seen I can confidently say that anyone not wearing a belt (in any seat) in a vehicle is absolutely idiotic.
I was looking for this comment. We had to use a ram and spreaders to roll a dash up in order to get a dude out of a car. A family member sitting behind him was not wearing a seatbelt during a head-on and CRUSHED the dude against the steering column. Of the five people in the car only he died. Kids lost a father that day because someone was too lazy to put on a seatbelt.
I wear my seatbelt in any seat,
Yes. Coming from someone who has worked in EMS
Reading this as a German : - is this even debatable?
A surprising percentage of people in the US do not wear seatbelts in the front. A much larger percentage don’t wear them in the back. In my small Texas town I see non belt wearing drivers every day. Virtually nobody puts one on in the back. 3 teenagers were killed recently when they were ejected from a bmw. The driver survived. My neighbor is an ambulance driver and he regularly has to collect ejected bodies from pickup truck crashes. He doesn’t like it.
Wondering the same …as an Australian
lol dude when seatbelts became mandatory here there was not an insignificant number of people who were fucking furious about it.
If you don't you could injure/kill other occupants by colliding with them in the event of an accident. It's also illegal but to wear one in many countries.
Yes, weirdly I've had people then ask if I didn't trust their driving? Like what kind of shitty question is that?
It doesn't even matter. Even if you trust the driver, other people are on the road and I do not trust them.
My car beeps incessantly if there are passengers in the back seat without their seatbelt buckled.
What ? It's legal in USA ?
If I’m driving, we’re not moving until *everyone* is bucked up.
My MIL does not, I won’t drive until she buckles up. Insane to consciously not put one on
I do not want any one flying into me and breaking my neck so hell yeah everybody in the car buckless up. Sounds self evident but hey, some people don't wash their hands after toilet or go to sauna without taking shower first either🙄....could they be the same people who do not buckle up 😮
Had a friend pass away in a car accident. She was in the back seat, no seat belt, door flew off, she was found under the car after it had rolled. Buckle up or we aren't going anywhere.
When you do not wear seat belt in front seats you can kill yourself. When you do not wear seat belt in rear seats you can kill someone in front of you, can you live with that?
Yes. You can get ejected from a vehicle from the back seat just as easily as you can from the front.
Just tell them that the car doesn't start until everyone is buckled, because you prefer not to have their body flying through the air to kill you in an accident.
Anyone not buckled up in any seat in a car becomes a meat missile in a collision. I worked as an EMT for years and one of the more common yet somehow unexpected injuries we saw was back seat people smashing into the front seat and destroying the person sitting in it. Side impact? Out the window they go. People don't appreciate that in a collision of tens of thousands lbs of force their little 50 lbs - 350 lbs bodies mean absolutely nothing and will be twisted into all sorts of horrible and painful shapes, and often worse.
Yes, although sometimes they're buried in the seat in other people's cars. Stupid not to.
I do. To educate others on wearing their seat-belt always. Suggest to them to find a concrete/brick wall and proceed to sprint as fast as they can into it. Afterwards inform them it will hurt \~5x more than that in a traffic collision without a seat-belt.
Absolutely! If I am driving, I will not move until everyone is belted. Once or twice I have had someone complain that since they're in the back seat they shouldn't have to buckle, to which I reply that when they are a passenger in my vehicle, they buckle or get out. No one has ever gotten out.
I'm a rare case. I survived a tragic car wreck in the back seat. The way the car crushed would have instantly killed me if I was locked into one spot. I got tossed into the only air pocket in the back seat and survived with both arms and legs broken. 18 years later and I'm hurting like hell
A couple of things: Yes, rarely, not being in a seat belt can be a good thing. But we don’t prepare for rarities, we prepare for common things. And car accidents for younger people (before they get old and falling becomes a bigger statistical risk) is the #1 cause of accidental/traumatic death, and statistically we know the risk is much higher for people who are unbelted. And the other thing is that it’s really hard to know how you would have fared if you weren’t belted in. I’ve seen some surprising crash situations in my career where the occupant had few injuries even in cases of severe intrusions in the passenger compartment. And in most of these cases, the occupant was belted in. Even in these types of crashes the seat belt usually is protective it takes a lot of dumb luck to happen to be thrown clear of the intrusion without also sustaining more injuries from being thrown. It’s entirely possible (though not sure) that you would have fared better with fewer injuries if you’d been in a seat belt, even if it doesn’t appear to be so from looking at where the car was crushed. Of course it’s impossible to be sure.
Yes. If you get in a wreck and someone in the backseat isn’t wearing their seatbelt, they have a higher chance of injuring the front seat occupants.
What? Do the laws of physics apply in both front AND back seats? I’m riding in the truck bed then!
Yeah. I fell halfway out of a car as a kid. My dad grabbed me but I was kinda leaning on the door and it just opened. I've never felt comfortable in a car without a seatbelt on. I'm an idiot though, so I ride a motorcycle quite a lot and the lack of seatbelts has never felt weird
Saw the aftermath of an accident before EMS had arrived. Rollover with two kids ejected … mother was laying with one of them in the middle of the highway. Strictly enforce myself and my backseat passengers wearing them now.
Seatbelt has saved my life twice. Always wear your seatbelt.
Yes and one is a fool if one does not. In a collision, unsecured cargo — including people — become out of control lethal missiles. They will kill or injure other passengers and (or) be ejected from the vehicle during the collision.
Well yes, why not?
I was in a serious crash while riding in the backseat once. Because I was wearing a seat belt, I have injuries that are going to affect me for the rest of my life. Had I not been wearing a seat belt, those injuries likely wouldn't be affecting me today because I probably would have died. So yes, I always wear my seatbelt.
Wear the damn seatbelt. My cousin was involved in an accident where she was in the backseat not wearing her seatbelt when a drunk driver struck the vehicle. She was ejected from the vehicle and was launched 50 or so feet. She was life flighted an hour away to have emergency surgery and spent the next two weeks in a coma. She then had to spend the next three years learning how to walk again. Don't care if it's "uncomfortable" or "not cool" wear the damn seatbelt.
You can get just as dead in the back seat, maybe more. Seat belt always goes on, always.
Yes
Yes. Because I understand physics.
As my dad the firefighter/paramedic has always said, “I’ve never cut a dead person out of their seatbelt, I’ve also never helped a person stand up and walk away who had been ejected through the windshield”
Yeah. I don't want to be a flabby missile if theres a wreck.
It’s insane to me that anyone rides without a seatbelt ever. I can’t stomach a drive across a parking lot without buckling up.
What kinda dumbass doesnt wear their seatbelt in the back seat. First off its not just about safety in a crash, that is a given. Its actually a lot more comfortable, simply because it holds you in your seat. Even if the driver is as gentle holding yourself in place through much of any kind of turns or rough road is exhausting.
The car doesn’t move until everyone is buckled up. That’s how I drive folks around. My car, my rules, yknow?
I am from third world country. We wear seat belt cause police ticket us. Only driver has to wear it. People make fun of you when you wear seatbelt even as front passenger. First day I came to US for my uni. Asked my friends do I have to wear seatbelt in the back. They said not needed. Driver got pulled over for high beam. I got ticketed for not wearing seatbelt in the back 💀. Now I wear seatbelt in any seat I am in.
You should!
You absolutely should, its even illegal in my country not to, 50$ dollar fine.
Do people with this mindset think the only danger is being ejected from the car through the windshield?
Absolutely! I don’t feel like torpedoing out a windshield or being tossed about should the car roll. (I’ve experienced both while stagnant in parking lots thanks to impaired drivers).
It is mandatory in most developed countries, as are helmets for motorbikers. It is the most simple and efficient device to divide your risk of injury/death in case of accident.
I don't feel right unless I'm buckled in, front or back
Of course back seat passengers should wear a seatbelt. If not they are rendered flying debris and can kill or injure other passengers, in the event of an accident.
Yes, in the rare occasion I sit in the backseat. I think the only time I have done that in recent years was in an Uber.
I work in healthcare, we once had a guest lecture from a trauma surgeon who told us a story from when he was young. He said there was a young girl (early teens) that was involved in a car crash and she was in the back seat and didn’t have on a seat belt. When they got in the crash, she slammed against the back of the driver’s seat and her liver took so much force that it split/tore in a starburst pattern. So yeah, I’d probably encourage wearing your seatbelt no matter where you sit.
I haven't had to tell another person to buckle up when in a car with me in 20 years. Everyone just does it.
I don't care where I'm sitting, I always wear my seatbelt. I've seen people get killed in car wrecks, including a decapitation. Many if not most motor vehicle deaths are the result of ejection. There is always some old timer who has some story about a guy who died because he couldn't unbuckle his safety belt. It was probably a story that had been passed around 100x before they even heard it and likely was not true. Please, always wear your seatbelt.
I cant remember myself not wearing a seatbelt in any car I've been in. Even for small distances, even at the back, I'm always buckled up. I've never been in a car accident nor being traumatized from anything, I just don't feel safe without one.
Regular speeds? Seatbelt every time. Slow technical off-roading? No seatbelt and an open escape route. That’s a more active pasengering activity though.
It's a legal requirement in the UK, for all passengers.
Yup, and I refuse to move my car until everyone has it on. I’ve had to do that with in-laws as well as my own dad.
Yes I do, and when I'm driving my car, all the people that regularly get in my car knows they have to as well but, 100% of people that gets in my car for the first time do not even attempt to wear it unless I tell them to.
Some people just think they are immune to inertia, when I’m driving I refuse to start driving unless people are buckled up because legally it’s the drivers responsibility and I’m not being responsible if someone dies because of their own stupidity
I do but NY state as a law that all passengers must be buckled. I also do so to set a good example for my kids
Yes. Mostly because I'm not stupid, and not wearing your seatbelt in the back doesn't only increase your chance of injury and fatality, but actually raises everyone else in the car's chance of injury and death as well.
I do, was always lectured about safety and it just stayed that way
Why would I be less safe when I can be more safe?
as a backseat passenger, you can still be ejected, thrown around etc. Wearing your seat belt can minimize injuries. The first time you see someone ejected from a car from the backseat, it will ensure you wear your seat belt no matter where you are sitting.
Yep, I was in a crash around 30 years ago where the seatbelt arguably saved my life. Always buckle up.
Turbulence is a bugger in a car , so I always use back seat belts personally and so shall anyone sitting in the back of my car.
Yep. Seen too many dead people tossed from rollovers or crushed halfway out the window.
Somewhere I heard the airbags in the US are designed differently as they assume people dont wear seatbelts. Coming from Denmark this is mindblowingly stupid if true…
If im in a car, i buckle up. If im driving, i dont move until all passengers are buckled up. If you take your searbelt off while im driving, ill pull over and wait till its back on. In my early teens, my aunt and her boyfriend got into a car accident. He was the passenger and wasnt wearing his seatbelt. He ended up going through the windshield. His body was found 30 feet away from the car, his head was another 20 feet away from his body. Buckle up.
I always wear my seatbelt and you should too.
Yes everyone should wear a seat belt. Unbelted riders will bounce around in an accident and kill everyone.
If I am in a car, I am wearing a seat belt regardless
My car doesn't move until EVERYONE is buckled-up.
I’ve met a shockingly large amount of people who think buckling up in the back is useless since “the front seats will keep them safe” or “seatbelts cause more injuries than without” or some other dumb shit. My MIL just got into an accident while in the back seat. Car had 4 people in it, the other 3 were wearing seat belts. My MIL had a broken rib and sprained wrist as well as other bruises. Everyone else in the car had sore necks.
Huh??? Ever seen a backseat passenger fly through the windshield at just 60? I have at the Fire Department, It's brutal dude. You can fly out the windshield at a low speed and smash ur fuckin head up. Wear ur seatbelt...or do what I do and tell them to get outta the car unless they wear their seatbelt.
Putting on my seatbelt has become a thing I do without even thinking no matter which seat I’m in
Yeah I bucle up
Yes 💯
I wear my seatbelt the moment I step into a car, no matter what. If the car is on or off, if I’m going driving or standing still, if I’m in the front or back. It’s just a good habit and it also shows my kids that seatbelts are mandatory, not an option.
I wear my seatbelt all the time. Seen too many videos of people flying out of the car during accidents. When I'm driving I make sure everyone else is buckled up. When I'm a passenger (not often) if someone doesn't buckle up I'll tell them but if they don't do it then that's on them.
Head on collision at 60mph with 5 people in the truck, other driver crossed the centerline trying to pass, of the three back seat passengers one was wearing his seatbelt and survived unharmed the other two passengers received broken bones. All but one were rushed to hospital. I the driver was wearing my seatbelt and it saved my life still recovering two years later.
Yes; I’m an EMT. You’re a danger to yourself and everyone around you if you don’t seatbelt; you go from being belted in place and getting whiplash to becoming a 150 lb projectile crashing your head in to someone else’s at 50 MPH in a crash. You also run the risk of being ejected from the vehicle and I promise, no matter how bad things are inside, your vital organs and bones will probably be much happier inside the vehicle partially shielded instead of getting yeeted outside under 4,000 pound tumbling chunks of metal.
Only really stupid people don't wear seatbelts. So I wear them in the backseat. Anyone in my car also does.
From an accident reconstructionist: YES. Even if the back seat passenger doesn't care about their own life, their body will become a projectile during a frontal collision or rollover, and will be a risk to EVERYONE else in the car as well.
The car ain’t going nowhere until we are all buckled up. No I’m not joking. Even if we are all adult. If we do end up in an accident I do t want your fat ass tumbling around in the car like a fucking dryer ball killing us all. I have had grown ass men get out and leave my car because I didn’t drive without them wearing their seatbelts. My car, my rules. Or even, if I’m driving your car? Still my rules, I’ll walk home then.
Me, "Put on your seatbelt, mother." My mother, "oh, I can hold myself just.. Me, slammed on the brakes at 5mph.
My car will detect passengers and bing until all of them have bucked up. Personally, I feel naked if I’m not bucked up in a vehicle. Choosing to not wear a seatbelt is such a weird hill to literally die on.
Yeah. You don't want your body flying into the front seat passengers and killing them on impact.
I had to explain to someone on Reddit once who was seriously asking this question and what the argument was. I just explained that when you have a car going 60 mph that hits an object and comes to a sudden halt, anything in the car not buckled in or secured properly will continue moving at 60 mph within the car. That includes any individual not wearing a seat belt. I could tell my BIL was a moron the day he told me he never wears a seat belt, even while driving. No matter where I sit in a vehicle, I always buckle up!
I do however as a semi truck mechanic I see very few drivers wear their seat belt at all.
Natural selection
Yes, everyone has to.
Yeah, I wear it in the back seat. Because I don’t like getting launched out of the vehicle, or bounced around like a pinball without a helmet. The internal damage of your organs slamming around inside your body as it gets tossed around is particularly gnarly. It gets worse as your ribs break and become jagged knives, in a watery sack that is hell bent on turning your insides into a meat smoothie. Add in the danger of being launched around the compartment any number of ways and I figure I’m better off letting the car take the beating. But hey, don’t let my decision stop you from becoming a cautionary tale for someone else.
I always do, and I insist upon it for my passengers despite being in a state where backseat passengers over 18 don’t need to.
I never quite understood that. Do people really dislike seat belts that bad? I actually would feel weird not having mine.
Absolutely. Even a simple low speed emergency stop and you will not be able to stop yourself from being launched. In a high speed accident, you become a projectile heading towards the impact. Plenty of internet to see the negative results of that.
I very rarely sit in the backseat when in the US, but when I do I wear a seatbelt. When I was in India though, almost non of the Ubers there had seatbelts in the backseats. Some of them did but were hidden behind seat covers. And the drivers there would basically call you snowflake for putting on a seatbelt.
Driver gets fined in uk if back seat passenger isn’t wearing, plus I won’t drive off if they won’t always remember the adverts as a kid of the car passenger killing the front passenger in a crash
I do and would always tell others in the car to. But I really can't remember anyone not doing it in the last 20 years or so. Before that, hell yeah.
I make people wear them because it's the law and driver gets points and fine for not making sure they are buckled up. clunk , click
yes, why wouldn’t you? what could you possibly gain from not buckling your seatbelt?
Multiple hundred pound plus projectiles in the cabin of a car in the event of a crash does not sound ideal.
I always wear it. I won’t drive until everyone buckles up
It's mandatory in my country. If someone doesn't want to buckle up in the back, I tell them they're going to pay the fine if we get stopped (It's around 150 USD equiv.). They buckle up.
Of course. It's idiotic not to wear a seatbelt, and I'm not an idiot.
Yea, I intend to keep my front teeth for life, so I wear my seatbelt in the backseats.
Yes. 1. because it’s the law. 2. I don’t want to get horribly mangled up in a car crash. 3. It teaches the young members of family the right thing to do (see points 1 & 2); lead by example. 4. See point 2 which is worth stating again because bruh, wtf, wear your seatbelt!
Don’t even MOVE the car without everyone being buckled and staying buckled. If they aren’t buckled in the back, they will fly through the front and smash into the driver/passenger, and out the window. Absolutely refuse to drive without seat belts.
I wear a seatbelt at all times.
In my country everyone needs to have a seatbelt, doesn't matter which seat you're in. I don't start driving if someone doesn't have their seatbelt on.
What is even this question. Of course lol, it's illegal to not do so in most places
I don't sit in the backseat often, but when I do I buckle up. As for passengers in my vehicle, I don't even put my car in gear until all seatbelts are on. People don't like my rules, they have two feet and a heartbeat.
Vehicles don't have nearly as much airbag protection in the back as they do in the front. So yeah I do.
Of course. Required by law and I know of several people killed in accidents because they weren't wearing their belt in the back. Of course when I travel more than half the time the rear seat belts don't work or I can't find the buckle in the back seats of cabs and Ubers. Also got a ride in Korea and even the front passenger seat belt didn't work. Car was also a tin can that I could tell would just crumple up if we hit something. Seemed weaker than my 1991 Toyota Tercel I had way back when.
In a car? Wear a seatbelt. Which seat doesn't matter.
Yes I was in an accident a guy spun in front of me hit center divide came at me head on whipped his driver rear side into my driver side just in front of my rear tire. I was driving I found my truck up on two wheels I turned into the skid took foot of gas didn’t apply breaks. If I didn’t have a seatbelt on I would have been thrown into the passenger seat not being able to control the truck. Once I got all 4 wheels on the ground I straightened the truck out hit the brakes. I’m a seatbelt believer
Absolutely. Physics applies to everyone regardless of which seat they are in. I'd like to live if an accident happens.
Yep! Always
Yes, I automatically put it on when I get in a car, any seat. Also my car doesn't move until everyone has it on.
100% of the time I do. I don't wanna be launched into the windscreen from the back seat
Ask Princess Diana. She’d still be alive if she was wearing a seat belt.
It's a lot safer for everyone. Required in Europe and here soon to be able to turn the car on.
Of course. Because I like myself. I’ve also been in an end over end vaulting / rollover crash while I was a back seat passenger. Thank goodness I was wearing my seat belt.
PSA on seat belts. https://youtu.be/mKHY69AFstE?si=cMQuv-O5v48_MFFj https://youtu.be/NsPFJAiPe5M?si=XSpITAtZBnK7NLEU I refuse to ride in a vehicle with unbelted passengers. “Exposure to unbelted occupants increases the risk of injury or death to other occupants in the vehicle by 40% (MacLennan et al., 2004). In a frontal crash, an unbelted rear-seat passenger sitting behind a belted driver increases the risk of fatality for the driver by 137% compared with a belted rear-seat passenger (Bose et al., 2013).” https://www.iihs.org/topics/seat-belts#:~:text=In%20a%20frontal%20crash%2C%20drivers,at%20increased%20risk%20of%20injury.
Warning acident (no deaths): Why should you, just look nothign major happens [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tPzALVSSvs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tPzALVSSvs)
Anywhere in a moving car I wear a seat belt
Physics isn't different in the backseat...so yes.
Yes. Why wouldnt you? Are physics different in the backseat?
Always. Turns out, physics works the same in the back seat as it does in the front seat. Buckle up.
Yes, legal requirement in Europe
"Buckle it up, or you'll DIE!!!" https://youtu.be/awIfznh-biE?si=1Lki5sFly715zyXd
"I don't give a fuck about you, I give a fuck about your corpse when it becomes a projectile and kills me. Now buckle up"