Ever been harrassed for not having a seat belt??

Seat belts work, helmets work,especially full face ones, but I agree the state should not have laws making them mandatory.

 

Back in my younger days I went to traffic school a lot, to avoid the points on my record. Like 6 times in 5 years, it got to be like it was just 8 hours jail time for the day. But I digree on my point. All the classes emphasized seat belt usage.

In one of the classes, the cop teaching said he had been to many accident sites, with many dead on arrivals, but he had never unbuckled a dead person. Sure they may have had serious injuries, but they were not dead. That shoule be enough to convice that seat belts do save lives.

 

Well, I am putting lap belts into my 49'. When I channeled it and put in new crossmembers for the body, I made some nice strong mounts for them.

Anyone know where we can get some new cool aircraft style latch seatbelts? I do not trust my life to30+ year old nylon webbing.

 

That's what killed one of my best friends. Angie was 27 and recently married.

I'd be putting a stick shift in my car if I'd had a seat belt on in '89 when I fell asleep and hit a 3' concrete overpass support at 60 with the cruise control on. Left leg is so messed up with arthritis and a cyst on the ball and socket I can barely use a clutch anymore.

 

True story. Slow speed accident. Right in front of the mall an Explorer pulled out in front of two guys on bikes. Couldn't have been going 20 mph.

The guys buddy watched as he had to dump the bike and slide under the Explorer. The rear tire rolled right over his head. Wearing a helmet, the guy got up and walked away.

Now I say this with an old fiberglass half helmet I wear when I ride but it does give you something to think about.

 

I'm pretty much with FlatEarnie on this. Seatbelts and helmets can save lives, and they can take lives. The government has no business regulating this. It is a personal decision. The government should not be trying to save the stupid from themselves. They also should not be doling out the previously mentioned "public assistance" to the stupid.

I have read that a lap belt alone can do more damage to a person than no seatbelt. According to what I have read, you're better off with no seatbelt than just a lab belt. Might not be true...could just have been more propaganda from the insurance companies when they were trying to get lap belts mandated by Big Brother (Big Mother?).

Also, it is a known fact (make that "known, but little publicized, fact") that many seatbelts, at least in the old days, would not release when there was weight against them. A friend of a friend almost burned to death when his car flipped and caught on fire. The latch would not release. Luckily help arrived in time to cut his belt and get him out.

If the government really wanted us to be safe, then they would mandate that helmets be used in cars.

 

about once a week in my 63 econoline....and they HATED no matter how I phrased it or kissed ass.....they hated being wrong..and would look for something else to nitpic. I got balls busted for no rearview mirror, and stickers on my back window and a website name on the van too. and unclear front plate.

it was either the cop was REAL cool and wanted to check out the van, or was a real dick no matter how much assed i pretended to kiss....

i had a cop at a seatbelt check (we have them here in NJ,like a DUI trap) tell me "what would you know you werent even born when this vehicle was made"

I said I know enough that even a damn passenger seat and armrests were an "OPTION" in my vehicle....

 

Wow, I think ill install a belt then.I kinda like my face the way it is right now,thanks everybody!

 

My Wife wouldn't let the kids ride in my truck until I got seatbelts installed in my truck.

 

In highschool my first ride was a '63 F100 that had no belts. My rents wouldn't even let me drive it around the block until it did. I thought they were being 'retarded parents' as any teenager thinks at the time. And anytime I got caught not using them I got my ass chewed by my father who had a bad head injury before I was born because of a car with no belts in it. The same accident nearly killed my other brother, so I understand where his reasoning for the chewings came from now that I'm older.

My whole perspective on seat belts has changed since last September when I broke an axle on my Galaxie going down the highway. Not 1 month prior I was flying down the interstate doing well over 80mph for 450 miles with myself, girlfriend and two friends in the car towing a loaded trailer and not one seat belt to speak of. Stupid. Had that axle snapped just a month earlier I have no doubt that everyone in that car would have been killed given how the car handled the day the axle finally let loose at a mere 50mph.

Its a personal choice if you want them in your cars, as it should be. But there is no way in hell I want to ever put my family and friends through 4 funerals because my dumb ass was too lazy to install them or too naiive to look after the people who are riding with me.

 

For every story about how a Seat Belt saved someone, I've heard a story about how someone would have died if they had been wearing a belt.

That wasn't the question.

I got a ticket once that got thrown out because the judge said the cop was mistaken about the law.

And when Samuel was in grade school, he signed me up to drive for a class field trip. Me and about 6 other parents showed up and we all got our kiddos to haul around for the day. Then they found out I didn't have air bags or belts and the only kid I could drive was my own.

The only car we have that has belts is my wife's Durango. But I never put them on, seriously After all the cars I've owned over the years, never having any. I just never got in the habit. Not saying they are good or bad, and I'm sure in time I might get used to them, hell even the cars I ran at Penwell didn't have belts.

But I hate that tied to something feeling, but then I can't be a in a car without a window being down either. A few years back I had a panic attack while in a truck and busted the window thinking I was trapped.....

 

Don't wear one if you don't want to, doesn't bother me....it's called NATURAL SELECTION.
I wear mine.

 

i wrecked once not wearing my seat belt, it killed me. i wear one now!

 

No, I never got harassed about seat belts. But then again, I use them and put them in every car I've ever own.

 

My reply is probably going to be a bit controversial but c'est la vie.

I wear seat belts now because it's the law in the truck I drive. I don't really mind them. My wife nagged me into it when I had a 3/4 ton that the state didn't require seat belts in.

I don't wear a helmet on my motorcycle. I only wear one in states that require it. I don't wear a helmet because it is my choice and I feel much safer without one than with one.

I will probably put seat belts in my cars that don't have them because my passengers (my wife predominantly) will want to wear them.

I did have a crash on my motorcycle going approximately 35 mph. I was asleep and went through a stop sign, hitting the chief of detectives. I was NOT wearing a helmet. Three minutes after the accident I was in the ER. Some cuts, almost lost my nose. I'm whole and not brain damaged (some would argue that).

Now the controversial part...God will call you when it's your time. That is my belief. I know too many instances of those who were protected that died and those that were not protected that did not to believe otherwise. I knew/know good people who did everything right and are dead and those who did/do everything wrong who are alive. When it's your time to have your ticket punched, you ticket will be punched regardless of what you do. Unless you really do stupid crap (no seatbelts doesn't qualify), you're going home when it's your time.

Therefore, God will call me rather I'm wearing seat belts or rather I'm wearing a helmet or not. It won't matter if someone else is stupid or not. I've been asleep on a motorcycle at 70 more times than I care to remember and I should, by all rights be dead as a result. It's just not my time.

 

And I know a guy that was riding and at five miles an hour, dropped his bike, hit his head (with helmet on) and broke his neck and died in the road. Ticket punched.

 

Yes, I have been harassed. I was laying on the ground, bleeding like a faucet, gasping for air and getting a lecture on the "safety of seat belts". Safety my arse. If I would have been wearing a seatbelt in the t bucket (RIP 8.6.2006) I would have gotten my head chopped off. Luckily, the cop understood the car falls into the "it is old, no seatbelt law" and FINALLY after me nearly having to get up and show him the rolled over roadster he saw my point. Do it for safety, especially for kids. Me though, I'll still drive roadsters belt less and run the risk. When it's your time to go, it's your time to go.

 

"[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Lap-only seatbelts fail to restrain the upper torso. This can lead to fatal internal injuries, spinal damage, facial fractures, brain damage and death...The auto manufacturers have known of this defect for more than thirty years. [...][/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] The National Transportation Safety Board has also concluded that lap-only belts induce injury, ranging in severity from minor to fatal due to jack knifing. The evidence indicates that the auto industry knew about the lap-only belt defect for more than thirty years. However, the auto industry did not begin equipping vehicles with both front and rear shoulder belts until the late 1980s. As a result, many vehicles that are still on the road today contain defective lap-only seatbelts in the rear and center seating positions."[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][/FONT]
Truth or propaganda? I don't know.

 

I was going to stay out of this but I can't. Not to pick on what you said Terry, don't take it personal, but the "for every story about how a Seat Belt saved someone, I've heard a story about how someone would have died if they had been wearing a belt." is pure horseshit. Like I said, don't take it personal, but how they hell would they know it would have killed them to wear it?

Yeah there are very few times where the belt have caused the fatality, but I'm here to tell you I have never unbuckled a dead person in 17 years as a police officer. I've handled in excess of 40 fatal accidents and in all but 1 or 2 the people most likely would have survived had they worn their seatbelts. In those two accidents nothing would have saved them period. I can think of several accidents where the interior of the car was in perfect shape but they were ejected from the vehicle and crushed.

You should see the photo I have of a guys head with the Ford logo pressed into his forehead from a low-speed roll-over. Belts keep you in the car people...the old "I wan't to get thrown free" from the car is bullshit too. The laws of physics say you will be thrown the same direction as the car and that's how you get squished. Not trying to be a dick but I don't want to see any of you guys get killed...and for the record, yeah I don't like seatbelt laws I think they are for generating revenue.

Bill

 

So you all get politically correct on here and rant about how your kids ain't riding in a car without belts.

Then you send them to school on a school bus....
You send them to games and events clear across the state or even in other states in school busses.

Seat belts are not required in school busses. Too expensive for school districts to install and maintain. Taxpayers and parents won't pay the expense.

There isn't a week that goes by without a story on the news about a bus full of kids in a disaster somewhere in this country.

Driver's Ed class tries to tell them about seat belts after they've ridden busses without belts all their lives.

Put your money where your mouth is.

And for all the classes where the cop is saying "I never unbuckled a body from a seat belt!" Of course not. He's too busy teaching classes when he's not working as the High School resource officer or the public information officer to be out on the road. They save lives, but they don't always save lives.

I had a state patrolman friend tell me once things reach a certain point, it all depends on what kind of funeral you want. Belt on, chest injury from steering column or broken neck from head bouncing off dash = Open casket. Belt off, thru the windshield and out of the car = Closed casket.

You don't unbuckle a body from a seat belt. That's what your Buck knife is for. Sometimes it's just too hard to get to the buckle. Don't ask me how I know.

Still, as Bill Cosby pointed out. "It makes it easier for them to find the body."
I know about that one too.

 

Joe I agree absolutely about the school bus issue, with some of the accidents in the past year they are looking at requiring belts in Illinois. And you are right, at a certain point it doesn't matter if you have one on or not, but I don't know where the magical "point" is...so I'll keep wearing mine.

Bill

 

I read that the reason they don't have seatbelts in school buses is that school buses have about the best safety record of any kind of transportation there is. They're statistically safer in a school bus than they are just about anywhere else.

But around here they don't have schoolbuses anyway. Too much money they claim. So instead there's about a million crazed soccer moms driving their kids to school in minivans while simultaneously drinking coffee and putting their makeup on in the rearview mirror.

 

Yep, you're right. If they're dead you leave them for the coroner or the EMT's. I hear about this form my brother the paramedic about this all the time, everytime they run one of those commercials with the cop saying those very same words, you don't unbuckle the dead people the EMT's and coroner does. My brother is for choice as well.

 

It's funny how most people don't argue with the fact that people under the age of 18 should have to wear a belt but those over 18 should be able to choose. Do the people under the age of 18 get to choose when the older "wiser" person becomes a projectile inside the car because they are not strapped in? If you are by yourself your right you are hurting no one but yourself but if anyone else is in that vehicle with you you are putting them in as much danger as youself by not wearing a belt.

 

I fuckin hate being told to protect myself. I hate being told that I can't smoke. I hate being told that I can't have something on my land. Seat belts, well I don't wear em 1/2 the time. I hate the feeling of it runnin over my neck and shoulder. I never EVER wear my belt in a nice big rain. I always hope for some "Harry Callahan" type to stop me for it in bad weather. I got my wish once. It had just rained and looked like it was clearing up. The cop saw I was not belted and started after me. Just as he got out it was getting darker and before I got my "papers" out it started sprinklin, then rainin, then pourin! I put my window up to stay dry as I searched for my insurance cert. He waved me off as he ran back to his car and PAed me to wear my belt as he drove off. I got a lot of "smiles per gallon" that day. Do I ever wear it? Yes but rarely. I don't care to explain it completely but I feel much better without it. Here's a good one...a woman in northern MI fell off a snowmobile about 4yrs ago and her husband was injured when his hit a tree. Don't know the particulars of the incident but she wanted to lobby for seat belts on SNOWMOBILES.

 

Be very careful of those 60s style chrome flip up buckles on seat belts they are the style belts that jam in an accident !!these are what gave seat belts a bad rap right upto today !I had a 64 Ford police cruiser with flip open belt latches any strain at all on the belt and you would have to pry the buckle open with a tire iron or something .this is the ones that the belt sliodes through the open buckle then the top clamps down on the belt itself

 

I got pulled over in the 65 Econoline a few months back because I forgot to put the newest tag sticker on it.

No ticket or anything... the guy just wanted to remind me to put this year's sticker on it.

The econoline actually had belts, but I never wear belts, anyway.

Nothing was said about it. They cop was more interested in the van.

 

Do you have any Tatoos? You need to get some realy distictive ones, several different places. Get some pictures of them and carry them in your wallet.
They won't be aloud as official ID but they can help the Cops figure out who you are.
Oh ya, show them to your folks so that they know where they are and what they look like, that way when they roll the cart out they'll know what htey are looking at.

 

--at the beginning of this thread I mentioned my bad habit of how I often forget to put on my seatbelt. A buddy and I were at a local club in chinatown hanging out last night. I was really taking it easy and babysitting my drink because I have been sick all week. After the club closed at 2, we hung outside talking to friends until about 2:30 to chill out a bit before going home. We were driving along hill st. In downtown LA at about 25-30mph in my little corolla daily driver talking about getting some grub. We came to the 7th st. intersection and had a green light. I continued into the intersection and out of the corner of my eye I saw a truck heading right for us and not stopping or slowing for the red light. I slammed on my brakes and skidded about 10'-15' and POW! The front of my corolla was anhialated! The hood flew off, the bumper was across the street, the mirrors busted, and we were turned around the opposite way. My radiator was pissing all over the middle of the intersection, and the engine was making knocking sounds. I hit my knee on the dash and it swollen and I have a red line on my neck from the seatbelt and a slight whiplash. My buddy hit his head on the window or roof? and has a sore back but thankfully we were both alive and pretty much OK. So guys just wear your seatbelts, and also make sure you have good brakes! If I hadn't of at least slowed down when I did, we would have got T-boned and it could have been waaaay worse! heres a couple pix from my cell phone...

 

bad way to top off a night, glad you're ok.