Buckling it behind you seems like more trouble than just wearing the silly thing.
A guy at work cut the seatbelt male connector off of a scrap truck the same make as his and just stuck that in the female seatbelt latch in his truck. Now the truck assumes his seatbelt is always buckled. Technically, it is, there’s just no belt in the mix. I guess he’s a ten percenter. You have to own a Harley to be a one percenter, I think.
Actually it is 80/20, aka Pareto’s Law.
I tend to think it’s a certain personality type that refuses to wear seat belts. Like, they will do (or not do) something just because they’re told to.
The one guy I knew who refused to wear a seatbelt had that kind of mentality. He’d walk into an oil refinery with a lit match just because you told him it was against the rules. He had some bizarre, outlandish reason for not wearing a seatbelt. He’s still alive as far as I know.
I agree, but his “reasoning” is clearly different from mine and yours.
My late aunt was even more extreme. She bought a new Malibu in the early-mid '70s, and the first thing that she did when she got home was to take a steak knife and hack the seatbelt/shoulder harness out of her car. When I saw what she had done and asked her why she had done it, she said, “Well, if I was in an accident and broke my arm, how would I take the seatbelt off if the car burst into flames?”
My response was, “Well, if your arm was broken, you probably wouldn’t be able to open the door either, so there wouldn’t really be a difference in the outcome”. Then, I went on to explain that she would be much less likely to break her arm–or anything else–if she was belted in, and she angrily said that I was being “impertinent”.
I remember back in the early 80’s we had a 73 caprice. We never wore seatbelts, but I just don’t think it was as much of a “given” as it is today that you need to wear it. One morning on the way to church, 8 year old me dug the lap belt out of the folds of the backseat and buckled up and sinched it down nice and tight! Unfortunately, i couldn’t unbuckle it when we arrived. Neither could Dad. I remember he borrowed some of those little arts and crafts children’s scissors and cut it off there in the parking lot. “Why’d you buckle it anyway?”, he asked?
So, apparently, if you’ve never used your seatbelt and you have a decade old car, it might be a good idea to spray some penetrating oil in there before you jump on the safety wagon! Else you might piss off your Dad 
+1
I would add a word or two on the truck/suv body design, which definitely makes the looks priority to the safety of pedestrians… not for a logical reason, but just for show…
I like ridiculously overpowered cars, though. Or at least the thought of them (I’ll probably never own one). The Dodge Demon of today probably has better manners than an early Dodge Viper, due to traction control, etc. So there is that aspect. I wouldn’t be surprised if they don’t put a cap on HP at some point, though. I haven’t kept up with bikes lately, but I heard a snippet talking about the power that some of the current super bikes are putting out. I don’t see any way you could use that amount of power with one drive wheel, even on the track. But, as an auto enthusiast, I hate to see a regression in power.
Agree that trucks of all makes have bulked up for the sake of bulking up over the last 20 years or so. It’s kind of silly, really.
Yeah I guess I’m willing to let the other 10% go rather than continuing to punish the 90% for their sins. The difference between us I guess. I don’t want to tell everyone else how to live and what risks to take. I don’t want them to tell me either. I know a little bit about risk management and that’s why I keep my seat belt on during flight even when the seat belt light goes off. I don’t yell at those that don’t though.
My tow truck came to tow me home 50 miles once and I rode home with him. I don’t remember if he had a Ford or a Chevy truck but he was not belted on the freeway. When I asked him about it he explained that on this model, a front end collision would push the steering column right through his chest. So he said if a collision is immanent, he’ll be laying down in the seat instead. Whether BS or not I don’t know, he’d been driving trucks for a long time and I was belted so who am I to require him to put his belt on?
It was 1974.
Just relating it to current events. The actual numbers will vary with the analysis but the idea is to find the point of diminishing returns. I don’t want to get flagged so we can take it outside if you want.
The probability of sensing an imminent collision and then having enough time to lie down on the seat is… pretty slim, IMHO.
That being said, the Tucker automobile was designed with a “crash cubby hole” for the front seat passenger. Because it didn’t have seat belts, passengers were supposed to crawl into the large space underneath the dashboard if a collision was imminent. That’s good in theory, I guess, but in practice how many passengers would actually be able to do that?
The right front of the car would collapse into that space in an offset frontal collision. Crawling down there would have been life threatening IMO.
That’s very likely, but let’s not forget that this car was designed in “The Good Old Days” when understanding of crash effects was still pretty primitive.
Tom McCahall (Mechanix Illustrated car guru) in the pre-seatbelt days, advocated diving under the dash in the event of a crash. I think he called it ‘heading for the basement, . I doubt at 6’2” & 250 pounds he ever attempted it.
I guess the only point was that some of the 10% non seat belt users have some well thought out reasons, whether legitimate or not, for not belting up. Sure there are others that don’t want their dresses wrinkled, but I guess never say never. Weren’t air bags provided with a higher explosive charge to compensate for no belts though?
Seat belts are important with air bags. The belts keep you in position for the air bags. If you are slumped or offset left or right, the bag will throw you in that direction.
Airbags don’t fully work unless you have a seatbelt on.
Way too many people don’t wear seatbelts. Same with motorcycle helmets.
I’ve been in 2 serious accidents and was NEVER EVER injured because I was wearing a seatbelt and shoulder harness. If I wasn’t then I probably wouldn’t be here.