Poll... Do you wear seatbelts?
 

Always
Most of the time
Sometimes
Rarely
Never

I would say that I am a "most of the time" I am not quite always but trying. Just curious if everyone here is as diligent about safty as FE?

Post up what you would say you were and I will edit it this post with a total.

yup

ALWAYS.

When I was 9 I got to see my mother in a hospital after she flew through a windshield. The driver fell asleep and hit a guard rail (cut the engine in half and exited through the roof of the car). She wasn't wearing her seatbelt and went head first through the windshield. I will ALWAYS wear my seatbelt, and so will everyone else riding in my car.

I pretty much always do, but I'm not totally convinced that they are always effective. When I was young(16-4 months after I got my liscense) I wrecked my dad's '78 Civic CVCC. The police said it appeared to them that the car rolled end over end at least once and sideways 2-3 or more times. I was NOT wearing my seatbelt and the driver's window was down. I walked away with out a scratch. When we were cleaning out the car at the wrecker yard the next morning, I tried to sit int the seat and the only way I could do that was to scoot way down in the seat and lean about halfway to the passenger seat due to the caved in roof. That car had shoulder type belts and, had I been wearing them, I would have been killed or permanently paralyzed. In fact, when I got back to the scene of the accident after going for help, the officer didn't believe I was the driver because I was still alive. As I said though, I do wear my seatbelts pretty much all the time; it's the law in Indiana.

Where does Yup fall?

Yup falls in between yuo and yuq :)

Me=Most of the time

I do wear mine 99.9 % of the time that I'm in a vehicle. I have had a similar experience as diamondlarry though, where the 1 time in 1000 I didn't have mine on I had a crash and ended up with mostly scratches. If I'd have been in the car, I may have been decapitated - T-Top car and it flipped and slid on it's roof. And it crushed the driver's side A pillar. God was watching out for me that day I assure you.

So, while I believe that they have benifits, they can be detrimital in some cases. It's the odds that dictate why there are seatbelt laws and such.

Always

Always

Always, my dad still doesn't even after he smashed his last windsheild with his head.

Always.

They definately saved me twice: once in a car crash, and once in an aircraft (hey, any landing you can swim away from is a good landing).

I'd be interested in seeing the percentage of crashes where wearing belts would have been worse than not wearing them. I bet it's a pretty small number.

I try to remember to wear them all the time. I figure it's much more likely, most of the time, to keep you from getting more hurt, than not. It is not always the case, as has been experienced, here, but it seems to me it makes more sense than not.

SINNER!

Anyway, I always wear mine, and I won't start the car unless everyone else is as well.

When I was 16 I knew two people who died in a car accident because they were not wearing their seatbelts. The survivor did wear her seatbelt.

Given the choice I prefer life over death.

That would be pretty strong medicine!

The only time I don't wear mine is when I drive my truck. And, at 8-11mpg, that is very rare. The odd thing about my wreck was that about 2 weeks after mine, another 16 year old wrecked what could have been my dad's car's twin. The damage was very similar and he died even though he was wearing his belt.:(

This is why I won't take my n600 on the freeway. I figure driving around town is dangerous enough in this little deathbox.

ALWAYS!

I've been 3 accidents where if I hadn't been wearing a seatbelt, I probably wouldn't be here typing this now. All of them I was a front seat passenger of a highschool friend. It actually feels uncomfortable for me to not wear a seatbelt. California is pretty strict on the "Click It or Ticket" thing, so just about everyone I know is religious about wearing one.

EDIT!!!

Except when the wolf chewed through them... had to drive without till I got new ones. Hated that feeling.

Always.

My parents taught me to wear a seatbelt at an early age and it's become completely automatic. I don't even think about putting a seatbelt on, and occasionally find that I have put it on when I sat down but didn't intend to go anywhere.

I don't think that there can be much of a benefit to riding without a seatbelt in a modern car. My first car was a mid-80s Volvo and knew that the safety cage would hold up in all but the most violent roll-over, and that a seatbelt was necessary to keep myself within that survival space. (I loved that heavy 27mpg beast!) I would bet that this is the case for most cars built to modern safety standards.

98% of the time. Sometimes I don't put the lap belt on (auto-seat belts) on very short trips. And if I am a passenger it is a little less then 98% (more like 90%).

Only when I'm driving 100+mph.

Just kidding.. I always wear it. My last wreck where I crashed head on into a pole if I wasn't wearing it I would of ended up on the hood. When I crashed the seat belt held me and the air bags didn't come out. The crash was at about 35-40mph. My chest hurt for a couple of days because of the seat belt.

Always. Ever since my first ex-girlfriend 25 years ago would have went threw the windshield if she wasn't wearing hers!

i put it on before i start that car. always.

Always...

I've seen too many accidents as a medic when people weren't belted...

RH77

Always.

But I feel that it should not be legislated. I'd wear mine anyway due to the safety factor, but big nanny government shouldn't be able to force this on those who are not operating the vehicle they are in. As long as you're not putting others in danger, the law shouldn't dictate the choices you make.

Haha. Try taking a Triumph GT6 with a non-stock engine to over 120 mph. Deathboxes? Love 'em to death! James Dean loved 'em too.

AGREED!!!

yeah but one has to think about the consequences in CASE an accident occurs. IF your head smashes through the windows, that's money spent to get your *** into the hospitals and crew to clean up your blood from the pavement! As well causing more delays to traffic than one already has done in an accident....

As for me my car beeps annoying at me, if I go over 20 km/h and I have no seatbelt on, it will repeat beeping after every 15 seconds so I dont really have a choice ;) but hey you can't be green if you don't have a belt :) If you get pulled over for something so stupid as like not wearing your belt and you get busted, boy you better be the biggest moron ever.

Sometimes if I don't have to go on a busy street, I won't but that's extremely rare, since if I hear the beeping I'll put it on quickly to shut it off. And really it only takes a second anyway ;)

or as one would say, "It feels like I'm driving naked without my belt."

He whos head smashes through the windows for not wearing the seatbelt is he who should pay for his own medical bills and damage caused by his actions. It's about personal responsibility.

This nation sadly appears to have shunned it, greatly easing the burden off of corporations and politicians, while expecting Joe Taxpayer to pick up the tab for corporate and government screwups and pick up the tab for frivalous lawsuits from those who deserve Darwin awards. Lawyers and corporate welfare queens alike are having a picnic.


Me? I will always wear my seatbelt. But I also realize it is only really going to be safe 100% of the time in a car designed with a rollcage so that you can't be crushed. Has anyone noticed that the safety regulations in cars today, pushed by auto lobbyists to help inflate vehicle price and add profit, appear to defy all logic? The safest car is not a minivan with large crumple zones and airbags, but instead the formula racecar with rollcage and safety harness. Crash into a wall going 220 mph, and walk away without a scratch. I'd like to see a minivan do that, when its airbags will decapitate a baby in a minor fender bender.

^^ aha well said man, you remind me of a friend who beat me in every debate I tried agaist him as well being an inspiration for my life.

You sound like the American version of him, i love your arguments, keep up the great work I just wanted to comment because your knowledge and your history gives me faith in what I believe in, thank you.

It would be cool if insurance gave you a discount on your car if you had a roll cage.

They'd never do that. Hell, they probably revolt at the thought of them becoming widespread; reducing fatal accidents and expensive claims gives them less of an excuse to jack your rates sky high. That industry is mostly a government sanctioned scam as it is anyway...

Roll cage and safety harness with a rigid chassis and composite body will do what no airbag, seatbelt, and all the crumple zones in the world could ever hope. Imagine driving around in a 1,200 pound carbon fibre sports car with a roof 38 inches from the ground complete with roll cage, and being safer than any SUV of minivan on the road. Would only logic governed major political decisions...

There is another reason that I wouldn't want to see widespread use of roll cages. Some moron that totally doesn't know how to drive thinks, "I have a roll cage. I can go even faster. If I screw up, I'll be ok." The problem is not so much how safe the car is, but the level of driving skill of the idiot behind the wheel. Legislating mandatory use of belts is like trying to treat a broken leg with large doses of aspirin, it may ease the pain(some), but the leg is still broken. I think the same thing could be said of ABS brakes as what I've mentioned about roll cages.

So is Georgia! They have signs up in most of the towns showing "This month's seat belt statistic" and "Best month" - showing a percentage. I guess it's the % of people wearing seat belts in ordinary traffic stops or something.

Always wear my seat belt...feel 'naked' with out it! :)

Always wear mine - met a temp college worker at a clients once, the following week she was riding with a friend and unbuckled her seat belt to get something in the back seat just as her friend driving was blinded by the sun and served to avoid something she thought she saw in the road and she got tossed out the window and killed instantly. Another friends mother didn't like wearing them then got knocked out of her seat and under the dash while driving in Boston traffic. Only bad story I heard was a girl got hit from the driver side and the shoulder strap took her head off at the neck.
Apparently the xB has some explosives in the post retracting system that tensions the belts upon air bag deployment.

Always!