Safety belt ...can you drive without?

peasant

I can't ..literally can not.

Even just rushing down the road from work to the postbox before its emptied, a distance of about 500 meters, not having the safety belt on just feels wrong.

Deliberately didn't put it on, as I knew I'd be jumping out in half a minute again ...just felt so "naked" without, had to buckle myself in halfway down the road.

louie

Same here. I used to hate the seatbelt, then I got into the habbit of wearing it and now can not drive without.

fletch

Yeh I just feel 'naked' without mine too. Often times even just moving the car in and off the drive-way I'd buckle up.

ballooba

Feel really insecure without it.

pete4130

Yep, cant drive without it on. I don't even start the car unless its on. Pretty much the first thing I do when I get into the car. You do feel "naked" without it. There is no real excuse for not wearing it.
It's funny that I'd put it on when moving the car in the driveway too.

louie

Ok.... I am not that bad but yes it is possible and have seen it as well.

Stephen

Same here. I feel really uncomfortable without mine on - and even when passengers don't put theirs on.

Eoin

I'm just the same - it just feels wrong when I'm not wearing one. The only exception, and I can't understand why, is when I'm in a taxi. It's the only time I have to remind myself.

Stark

Another one for the "feel naked without it" club.

Táck

same here, have to have it on regardless of seat in car.

sometimes even after putting it on, i tighten it so there is no looseness!

Marcus.Aurelius

I feel the same! Almost like I'd fall out of the seat through the door if I took a bend too quickly

Shamrogue

Sometimes when im driving 200 - 300 meters I might not bother putting it on, but when i get there Ill click the button to release. Im conditioned to wear it!

JoeA3

I'd never drive without it either, out of habit, but my last couple of cars have a seatbelt-warning chime for both driver and passenger seats which would drive you to distraction!

Saruman

Same here, although i would force myself not to if i was on the way home and stopped off at the shop across the road. Its only a few hundred meters so will not bother putting it on as i will be out of the car in a moment.
I do still feel naked though.

BrianD3

Always wear it in the car whether I'm a driver or passenger. And if I'm on a bus with seatbelts I'll always put it on there too. I'd say 9/10 of bus passengers don't bother. Many don't bother in the back seat of a car either.

Saruman

Even when im in the US, i will wear my seatbelt if there is one... i get funny looks as over there (depending on the state probably) you only have to wear it in the front. And many drivers do not bother.

Jumpy

Shamrogue wrote: »

Sometimes when im driving 200 - 300 meters I might not bother putting it on, but when i get there Ill click the button to release. Im conditioned to wear it!

I have habits like that as well. I was in france in the passenger seat of a car and when the car parked, just before I took the seatbelt off I tried to put it in first gear and lift the handbrake. I got a funny look.

Alun

Stephen wrote: »

Same here. I feel really uncomfortable without mine on - and even when passengers don't put theirs on.

I can't even reverse the car out of the drive to park it up on the side of the road to let my wife's car out without putting it on! Anyway, my car beeps at me if I do, and that's just plain annoying

And as for passengers, front or back .. if they don't put theirs on, the car doesn't move, no discussion.

Táck

Saruman wrote: »

Even when im in the US, i will wear my seatbelt if there is one... i get funny looks as over there (depending on the state probably) you only have to wear it in the front. And many drivers do not bother.

i heard before, i dont know how true it is, that the airbags in US cars are designed to explode in such a way that they protect people more who arn't wearing their belt!

colm_mcm

I get the annoying beep-beep-beep thing, so even if I wanted to leave it off (which I never do!) I'd be annoyed into putting it on.

Alun

colm_mcm wrote: »

I get the annoying beep-beep-beep thing, so even if I wanted to leave it off (which I never do!) I'd be annoyed into putting it on.

On my car the annoying beep only kicks in above 5mph, so all you'd have to do is drive everywhere verrrrrrrry sloooooowly

colm_mcm

Alun wrote: »

On my car the annoying beep only kicks in above 5mph, so all you'd have to do is drive everywhere verrrrrrrry sloooooowly

or in reverse. you'll get 20mph flat out.

mike65

Same here, just feels wrong.

Mike.

_Kaiser_

Always have mine on too.. just feels wrong without it

Complete startup procedure :
- Get in, key in ignition, move to on.
- Seatbelt
- start engine
- dip lights on (always - even if just moving the car)
- phone in cradle. turn bluetooth speaker on
- select appropriate track on the cd player/put on newstalk
- check mirrors, indicate and drive away

Max_Damage

Driving: I always wear it. 'Clunk click, every trip!'

However, if I'm a passenger in the back seat, I tend not to wear it for some reason. Mainly because many of the cars my parent's had when I was younger had no rear seat belts (hell, my own car doesn't even have them!). It's a bad habit I should really get out of.

Max_Damage

Kaiser2000 wrote: »

Complete startup procedure :
- Get in, key in ignition, move to on.
- Seatbelt
- start engine
- dip lights on (always - even if just moving the car)
- phone in cradle. turn bluetooth speaker on
- select appropriate track on the cd player/put on newstalk
- check mirrors, indicate and drive away

Captain Slow!

Capt'n Midnight

Táck wrote: »

i heard before, i dont know how true it is, that the airbags in US cars are designed to explode in such a way that they protect people more who arn't wearing their belt!

No it's more of a case that air bags save lives in the states because they don't wear belts.
Good air bags + belt is safest
belt is safer than bad air bags , especially if you aren't of average build. People have been killed by air bags who might have lived if they wore a belt to protect them from the air bag.

Naked too, only time not worn if repositioning a car in a private place by mostly reversing and even then it's usually on instinctively.

mikemac

Always wear it and as been stated already, I'd feel "naked" without it.
I even wear it the back and passenger seat too.

There was a time when few people wore seat belts and if you ever watched a checkpoint you'd see people struggling to belt up.
This has improved big time in the last few years.
Most people no longer need to be reminded

Volvoboy

Have been known not to wear it but John Law is out and about to remind me and, its damn silly not to wear it, just think there is a bit of Volvo in every modern car!




-VB-

colm_mcm

Don't you mean there's a bit of every modern car in Volvos? well mitsubishis, fords, peugeots, renaults anyway

Volvoboy

colm_mcm wrote: »

Don't you mean there's a bit of every modern car in Volvos? well mitsubishis, fords, peugeots, renaults anyway

See i like Volvo's when they were just that a Volvo!! Not some sick Mutt!!

No Volvo has interseted me since the 900



-VB-

_Kaiser_

Max_Damage wrote: »

Captain Slow!

Damnit! Shoulda seen that coming! Not really though.. I like to make "efficent progress" on the roads

E92

I wouldn't drive a yard without my seat belt on, and I always wear a seatbelt when provided on anything, except on the plane when they allow you to unfasten the belt. Even if I'm reversing out my gate, and I have to close it, on goes the belt. And I refuse to move my car if somebody doesn't wear their seatbelt.

Its plain wrong not to drive or be driven without a seatbelt.

Chiron

I too feel naked without my seatbelt on. I refuse to drive unless every body in the car has their seatbelt fastened.

On a side note, I remember seeing "Reeling in the years" not so long ago and it was the year seatbelts became compulsory. There were loads of people on complaining that being forced to wear a seatbelt was against their human rights!

colm_mcm

sure everything's against our human rights; having to pay to have our bins emptied, re-using plastic bags, getting used to caling Marathons "Snickers", using the Euro, not smoking in the pub - we adapt very quickly to be fair!

Stark

colm_mcm wrote: »

sure everything's against our human rights; having to pay to have our bins emptied, re-using plastic bags, getting used to caling Marathons "Snickers", using the Euro, not smoking in the pub - we adapt very quickly to be fair!

I don't think they had those "Marathon, the bar known internationally as Snickers" and "Snickers, the bar formerly known as Marathon" wrappers for long enough. It was a massive change to spring on us overnight. My poor old neighbour, bless her, she still gets confuddled when she goes to the shops to buy a chocolate bar. Lots of people like her around who still think in old chocolate.

skibum

Alun wrote: »

And as for passengers, front or back .. if they don't put theirs on, the car doesn't move, no discussion.

Same here, used to get funny looks from pasengers but anybody who knows me know to buckle up, no questions asked.

Having been in two "biggies" as a passenger where I would have been seriously injured if not killed without the seat belt, I always put a belt on. Recently got a spin in a corvette stingray, really beautiful old car that only had a lap belt, really enjoyed the ride but felt uncomfortable not having the 3 point belt...

Why do people travelling on buses never wear seatsbelts?
I wonder would they travel in a car with no belt?

I always put it on when on the bus

Mitch Connor

louie wrote: »

Same here. I used to hate the seatbelt, then I got into the habbit of wearing it and now can not drive without.

same with myself. Even reversing the car out of the driveway and then back in (to let a car out) will require the seatbelt being put on.

When i was a kid i hated wearing my seatbelt, but now it is just a habbit, and it does feel weird being in a car without it. Even sitting in the back of a car, the first thing i will do is put the seat belt on. Again, when i was younger I would put my seatbelt on in the front, but didn't see the point in doing it when i was sitting in the back.

High&Low

salonfire wrote: »

Why do people travelling on buses never wear seatsbelts?
I wonder would they travel in a car with no belt?

I always put it on when on the bus

I never been on a bus that has had a seatbelt...

Stark

Intercity buses have seatbelts.

ianobrien

I am another for the "feel naked without it" club, and by the way, Seatbelts WILL hold you to the seats, even if the car is upside down! I've experienced it, and I'm not small!

I got a spin in a car that had no seatbelt around a farm and it felt so wrong!

ambro25

If it wasn't for the onboard "Bitching Betty", I wouldn't put it on half as often. I feel better driving without.

Blazer

ambro25 wrote: »

If it wasn't for the onboard "Bitching Betty", I wouldn't put it on half as often. I feel better driving without.

Me too..I'd always wear it for driving anywhere..but for christ's sake..having to move my car in the driveway requires the bloody thing on :mad:

alias no.9

I'm in the 'naked without it' category. I was a passenger in a car that rolled. I got out relatively unschathed because of the seat belt.

dudara

Key in the ignition, seatbelt on, turn on ignition. There's just no deviating from this routine on my part.

I won't move the car if a passenger doesn't put on a seatbelt.

My parents are from the old school and only tend to put on seatbelts when entering onto an N-road. Watch out for a middle aged women in a green merc who is swerving as she attempts to put on her seatbelt while doing 60 on the Ballyvourney side of Macroom in Cork - that would be my mother.

Wertz

Never without it, be it driver or passenger; I'll even wear it while stationary and waiting to pick someone up in the car. This is due to my mother's life being saved some years ago after she was rear-ended by some guy asleep at the wheel....her seatbelt and the new towbar were the only things that stopped her being thrown out onto the road (the towbar took an awful lot of the momentum out of the impact according to the insurance assesor; car was a write-off).

As for wearing them on buses? Was on a bus last month for the first time since they were taken in....I attempted to put on my belt, no, wouldn't fit, tried adjusting it, nope, tried another seat/belt combo....still nothing. I am by no means overweight, quite the opposite....if bus eireann's belts wouldn't circle my girth then they were a pointless addition to the fleet, because they rule out anyone with more than a 30" waistline...

ambro25

Wertz wrote:

Never without it, be it driver or passenger; I'll even wear it while stationary and waiting to pick someone up in the car. This is due to my mother's life being saved some years ago after she was rear-ended by some guy asleep at the wheel....

I hear you and statistically there's no doubt it saves manifold times more people than it kills. But I know about as many people who were killed (or not killed, as the case may be) because they were not wearing it, as people who were spared because of it. Horses for courses, from a personal POV.

Stark

How would a seatbelt kill someone in an accident?

Wertz

The only urban myths I've heard are where people have been belted in and could not free themselves from the car before it caught fire (after an accident obviously)
Then again I've heard of airbags killing and maiming people...

Stark

Wertz wrote: »

The only urban myths I've heard are where people have been belted in and could not free themselves from the car before it caught fire (after an accident obviously)

I snopes.com

http://www.snopes.com/autos/techno/seatbelt.asp

Wertz wrote:

Then again I've heard of airbags killing and maiming people...

Yeah I've heard of short people being seriously injured by airbags due to being positioned very close to the steering wheel when the airbag expands with explosive force. I think some modern cars have an option to disable the airbag for that reason.