Why wear seatbelts?
- Thread starter Hellcat
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Why wear seatbelts?
matthew.raine
New member
Yeah always a good idea to wear them. I think you're expempt if you're a driver making local deliveries or if you have a medical reason, such as you're a siamese twin and the belt would entrap your twins face... 
'Ye cannae change the laws of physics Jim'
Newton's first law of motion states "An object at rest tends to stay at rest and an object in motion tends to stay in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force."
In other words, if you are safely cocooned in your protective cage, hurtling along the Queen's highway at 30mph and said protective cage is forced to a sudden halt, you will continue to travel in the same direction until you are acted upon by an unbalanced force.
In the majority of cases, said 'unbalanced force' is your seatbelt. Sadly, in a few cases, this 'unbalanced force is the windscreen (which often slows, rather than stops your momentum) or the tarmac.
Why do these people think rally drivers & F1 drivers wear a harness? Their chances of crashing are far less than ours - they are all travelling the same direction, we have to suffer muppets pulling out, cutting us up, wandering, distracted by yakking on their mobiles etc etc.
Newton's first law of motion states "An object at rest tends to stay at rest and an object in motion tends to stay in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force."
In other words, if you are safely cocooned in your protective cage, hurtling along the Queen's highway at 30mph and said protective cage is forced to a sudden halt, you will continue to travel in the same direction until you are acted upon by an unbalanced force.
In the majority of cases, said 'unbalanced force' is your seatbelt. Sadly, in a few cases, this 'unbalanced force is the windscreen (which often slows, rather than stops your momentum) or the tarmac.
Why do these people think rally drivers & F1 drivers wear a harness? Their chances of crashing are far less than ours - they are all travelling the same direction, we have to suffer muppets pulling out, cutting us up, wandering, distracted by yakking on their mobiles etc etc.
clunk click every trip
i find myself checking my seatbelt is on every few minutes, and tightening it a little bit if it becomes a little bit loose across my chest
a seatbelt saved my life i was told, so i always wear one
i find myself checking my seatbelt is on every few minutes, and tightening it a little bit if it becomes a little bit loose across my chest
a seatbelt saved my life i was told, so i always wear one
how about ban horses from the roads? no horse, and no-one would've been hurt there, seat belts or not.
The law now is the only times you dont need to wear a seatbelt is when your doing a reversing manoever or medically exempt
I think the law should be changed TBH.
I dont see why you have to remove a seatbelt to reverse....Ive always managed it fine using mirrors when strapped down with the harness....the seatbelt moves when unloaded anyway, so theres no excuse IMO.
Equally...why should you be exempt when medically unfit? If youre unfit to drive youre unfit to drive straight as. I can see that certain scenarios (like very fat people, pregnant women etc.) may use load spreading things to limit crash loads, but thats better than not bothering. Its mainly for the safety of everyone else....
I dont see why you have to remove a seatbelt to reverse....Ive always managed it fine using mirrors when strapped down with the harness....the seatbelt moves when unloaded anyway, so theres no excuse IMO.
Equally...why should you be exempt when medically unfit? If youre unfit to drive youre unfit to drive straight as. I can see that certain scenarios (like very fat people, pregnant women etc.) may use load spreading things to limit crash loads, but thats better than not bothering. Its mainly for the safety of everyone else....
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I don't think it's *compulsory* to take off your seat belt when reversing.. the other poster was just pointing out that you are allowed to do so if you wish. It may be advantageous if you turn round in the seat to look out of the rear of the vehicle.
I always reverse on my mirrors so don't need to.. spent a couple of years as a lorry driver early on in my driving career, and have never broken the habit.
Cheers,
Plug
I think the medical exemption comes into play for those with chest/ heart/ lung problems. A seat belt may cause all sorts of problems if pressed into their chests during a crash.
But the thing is, for a seat belt to be forceful enough do that kind of damage in a crash suggests that not wearing it means you're going to hit the steering wheel/ dashboard/ windscreen instead.
So instead of having your chest crushed you risk having your head splatted as you get get ejected from the seat. I can't see the logic in this medical exemption business?
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After my nan had a heart op she had troubles with seatbelts touching the scars. Even the pressure of just the seatbelt on the scar was uncomfortable for her so the force during a crash would of been agony. She bared it though and held the belt away from her chest when travelling.
if i remember right there are three collisions going on within the overall incident, your car into whatever it has hit, your body within the car and finally your internal organs, including the brain, crashing into your skeleton.
all of which a pretty fine mess, according to sir isaac........
OP
OP
Been proven the human body can survive stopping forces of 46G. Long as you're not impacting something then you should survive.
I think the medical exemption comes into play for those with chest/ heart/ lung problems. A seat belt may cause all sorts of problems if pressed into their chests during a crash.
But the thing is, for a seat belt to be forceful enough do that kind of damage in a crash suggests that not wearing it means you're going to hit the steering wheel/ dashboard/ windscreen instead.
So instead of having your chest crushed you risk having your head splatted as you get get ejected from the seat. I can't see the logic in this medical exemption business?
well if you had a mild(relativly) condition that was agravated by a seatbelt and perhaps meant you could only walk a few paces.
would you be happy becoming housebound by it?
or take the risk to your personal safety to have some form of life?
I know of a case where a driver was carrying a wheelchair passenger & had simply draped the full harness over the person for quickness (idleness?) without adjusting it to fit.
His thoery was always 'I don't need to wear a seatbelt, in 40 years of driving I've never had an accident'.
Anyways, this particular day he was driving along & some nutter decided he wasn't going to be stuck behind a bus so he pulled out.
Of course, this was the day when his car decided to hesitate for a split second as he was pulling out.
The bus driver slammed on his brakes, smashed into the side of the car and came to a halt - except for the person in the wheelchair, who carried on at about 30mph (or maybe more?) until they hit the harness.
Unfortunately, at that point they were about a foot in front of their wheelchair. So, gravity not being kind to us, after they hit the harness, they dropped to the floor.
To make matters worse, three walking frames belonging to other passengers had simply been stored at the back of the bus.
They also carried on travelling forwards at 30mph+ causing much havoc & injury as they bounced off various seated passengers, until they came to a sudden stop against the windscreen of the bus.
There were plenty of injuries, some critical, but the safe driver was unable to help as he had shot forward, wrapping his soft, gooey bits around the steering wheel, all his passengers were elderly/disabled so were unable to take care of their injuries, the escort on the bus was disabled by the action of the flying walking frames (knocked unconscious) and the idiot who pulled out was in a coma for quite some time.
Because one person - who should've known better (he'd had all the relevant training, seen all the videos etc) - broke the rules, many people suffered.
Many people are under the impression that they are exempt from wearing a seatbelt simply because they are doing lots of stop/start & short journeys (as many bus drivers do). A pity their stupidity has to impact on the lives of others.
His thoery was always 'I don't need to wear a seatbelt, in 40 years of driving I've never had an accident'.
Anyways, this particular day he was driving along & some nutter decided he wasn't going to be stuck behind a bus so he pulled out.
Of course, this was the day when his car decided to hesitate for a split second as he was pulling out.
The bus driver slammed on his brakes, smashed into the side of the car and came to a halt - except for the person in the wheelchair, who carried on at about 30mph (or maybe more?) until they hit the harness.
Unfortunately, at that point they were about a foot in front of their wheelchair. So, gravity not being kind to us, after they hit the harness, they dropped to the floor.
To make matters worse, three walking frames belonging to other passengers had simply been stored at the back of the bus.
They also carried on travelling forwards at 30mph+ causing much havoc & injury as they bounced off various seated passengers, until they came to a sudden stop against the windscreen of the bus.
There were plenty of injuries, some critical, but the safe driver was unable to help as he had shot forward, wrapping his soft, gooey bits around the steering wheel, all his passengers were elderly/disabled so were unable to take care of their injuries, the escort on the bus was disabled by the action of the flying walking frames (knocked unconscious) and the idiot who pulled out was in a coma for quite some time.
Because one person - who should've known better (he'd had all the relevant training, seen all the videos etc) - broke the rules, many people suffered.
Many people are under the impression that they are exempt from wearing a seatbelt simply because they are doing lots of stop/start & short journeys (as many bus drivers do). A pity their stupidity has to impact on the lives of others.
a girl in my school had her seatbelt slice into her flesh during an accident. it took a huge slice of skin clean off. thankfully it was grafted back on but many of the people in my school stopped wearing seatbelts after that. personally i'd rather lose a bit if skin than my life, but we're all different.
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I agree, I've known dislocated shoulders & fractured pelvis - but I've also seen what happens when your face goes through the windscreen
Same for motorcyclists really, you can always tell the serious guys, top money on proper leathers & they wear them even in the summer. makes me cringe when I see guys riding even mopeds in shorts & tee shirt
And even cyclists think they're immune - still too few wearing skidlids & still too many kids riding bikes with their skidlids hooked over the handlebars.
We had a couple of incidents a few years back, one lad came off his bike, split his head open on a kerbstone. Big thing in the local rag, big push at the school to promote wearing helmets.
Few weeks later, same school, another lad came off his bike, banged his head on the road & suffered brain injuries.
Neither accident would have been anywhere near as serious had either kid worn a helmet.
Helmets don't look cool but I have a slogan on mine, nicked from Red Dwarf, "better smeg than dead" - I'd rather be a living fashion disaster than a dead 'cool dude'.
Why do people think the Government is trying to 'nanny' them? £millions have been spent (and continue to be spent) on research to improve safety yet people assume it'll never happen to them.:bang:
johnstoke
Member
about the only time i dont wear my seatbelt is when i move my car on the carpark at work from its parking space to the gate if it's my turn to lockup on a sat morning, and even then half the time I wear it to do 20 yards, feel 'naked' without the belt on
i wouldnt ever not wear a seatbelt
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anyone see 5th gear with the london cabs?
apparently kids dont have to legally wear seatbelts, and you should have seen the results of the crash
apparently kids dont have to legally wear seatbelts, and you should have seen the results of the crash
