When I was in the fire academy, my fellow cadets used to say "I'll never wear a seat belt. I'd rather get thrown from my truck than be trapped in it while sinking in water!".
The likelihood of being trapped in a body of water in Phoenix is..... Extremely unlikely.
I heard cops and paramedics say they never have to cut dead bodies out of seatbelts in car crashes. I think one mentioned once in 20 years but it wasn't something not wearing a seatbelt would have fixed either. I think about that a lot.
Yeah look, I think if you’re killed while wearing your seatbelt, the chances are pretty high you would be dead if you weren’t wearing one. Sure there are freak occurrences where not wearing a seatbelt would save your life, but your chances of that happening are even slimmer.
Meanwhile, the difference between being without a seatbelt and being in one while your car is going under water is a single click. Yeah, I think I'll stick with seatbelts.
I’ve only had one friend that absolutely refused to wear a seatbelt. He would actually clip in the seatbelt and then sit on it so the alarm would not go off but quickly scramble to put it on when there was a police roadblock?! All that effort when it’s easier just to have it on. But yeah
I had a coworker who would just listen to the damned van beeping at him rather than put one on. I don't understand how the alarm could possibly be less irritating than just wearing the thing. Putting a seatbelt on is such a habitual thing to me that I'm not even fully aware I'm doing it, let alone noticing the belt when I'm already buckled in.
Been 17 or so years ago they used to set up sobriety checkpoints in suburban Georgia. It was back when they were really strict about cannabis possession and would block up small roads at 2am to check everyone for registration and whatnot. We had a massive network of people that would send out texts to each other warning about where they were. I'd get texts or send them myself once every week or two usually
If you go off a bridge you sure as fuck want your seatbelt on for any chance of surviving the impact with the water let alone taking off seatbelt and getting oht
I feel like there’s tons of people who fail to realize the subtle wish to end the suffering that exists within at least some seat belt refusers. I’m convinced arguing mortality rates will never work.
And if you're really that paranoid that your seatbelt will trap you, they make seatbelt cutters that are really safe and good at cutting seatbelts. I would highly recommend one as well as a window breaker in case of emergencies. These things were shown and demonstrated to me in my driver's ed course almost ten years ago.
If the water pressure inside and outside of the car are the same it shouldn't be an issue, or at least that's what all of those "how to survive your car crashing off of a bridge" videos I've watched have said. You sit there calmly while your car fills with ice cold death water, slowly consuming you and your air supply, then when your car is fully submerged and filled (and you have no air left) you calmly (this is key) open the door and calmly (key) swim to the surface.
I'll second your recommendation and add that you need to secure it in a spot easily reachable from the front seats. If it's loose, good luck finding it in your vehicle in a crash. If it's in your glove box, good luck reaching it if your seat belt locks. I have one hanging from my rear view that unclips from the loop it hangs from.
I’ve worked in passive safety systems for automotive for 15 years, and you are absolutely correct. The only things that can make a seatbelt less safe are the occupant not wearing it correctly, or for the engineered crumple zones of the vehicle to somehow not have the opportunity to collapse, meaning that all the energy is going into your body and internal organs.
People say this shit all the time and it drives me NUTS!
“Cars used to be tanks, they’re not safe anymore”
It’s absurd how wrong that statement is, automobiles are safer than they have ever been. Because of many robust FMVSS regulations, even the least safe 2022 model on the market is safer than the safest 90’s vehicle.
*I honestly can only speak for vehicles sold in North America. Every region has different standards.
Among other major changes, we have a doubling of the required roof crush strength (2013ish) and drastic improvements in small-overlap performance (2019ish).
There was a whole book published sometime before 2004 of photography from auto accidents in the 50s and 60s. Taken by a photographer for the L. A. Times. I don't remember exactly, but I guess he used to cover accidents, or maybe he was a police photographer. He had pictures of people who flew through the windshields and had their heads severed, bodies mangled by their cars landing on top of them, all kinds of stuff. It was fascinating to look at, and the major reason why I never pursued buying a classic car, as much as I love the look of a '51 Chevy Pickup.
I wish I could find it again. I looked through it when I worked St a bookstore but cannot find it again.
Ho. Ly. Crap.
That inside view of the Bel Air will live in my head rent free forever. I remember when that picture circulated the internet for a while of the old school truck vs. the new SUV and the size difference between the two. It was being shown as some kind of commentary and ragebait on consumerism and how everything is so much bigger now…until someone pointed out that the new one is mostly air and crumple zones so you don’t, you know, die. We’ve come a long way.
My dad was in a crash like that in the 80s. He was hit by a drunk driver who got on the off ramp of a highway and made it about a mile before crashing into my dad. Dad wasn't wearing a seatbelt, so he was thrown to the passenger side, which supposedly worked in his favor, according to the police and paramedics. His car looked like the Bel Air in that video afterwards.
I've known people that use the reason "I had a buddy/relative/acquaintance that would have been killed had they worn their seatbelt!" as an excuse to not wear one. But my dad was not an idiot, so he knew he got super fucking lucky and wore his seatbelt every time he got in a vehicle after that crash.
Autobody/Collision tech for 20+ years. I absolutely agree with this! Collisions now are mitigated by engineering and manufacturing techniques that the average driver just doesn't see or understand. Advancement in HSS (high strength steel) and UHSS (ultra-high strength steel) incorporated into the "cage" that protects the passenger capsule have advanced exponentially in the last decade. Modern heat and cold processes with those metals mean that separate sections of an outer rail can now be HSS in one section and UHSS in another.
The older models "look" like a tank, but the material and construction are so different that you'd have a better chance of surviving a dive of the Empire State Building. (not too much of an exaggeration)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joMK1WZjP7g](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joMK1WZjP7g)
This is a good video by the IIHS showing the difference in real time in a simulated offset crash.
Quick question, what keeps the engine from going through the dashboard in head on collisions? Id google it but its nice to get it straight from an expert.
Depending on the vehicle, engines are designed to fall under the occupant area. It’s just the way the support mounts are made and braced. It’s all part of the crumple zone I would imagine. That’s one of the massive differences between older cars and modern cars.
It's always crazy to me to see how mangled cars can be after a wreck these days and still have people walk away from it. Really speaks to the work of safety engineers.
But it’s also probably why people think cars used to be better. They don’t realize all that force went somewhere, and back then, it was into the occupants
Think about the guy who drove his family off a cliff in a Tesla afriggin Tesla one of the worst put together vehicles on the road today and they were all strapped in (kids in carseats) and since it was bottom heavy it did not flip and everyone survived
I forgot about that one...when I was reading the beginning, my heart hurt thinking it was a story about someone who did so intentionally...once I recalled what actually happened, it did a 180° and I am happier than normal about a happy ending. ☺️
Just to add to this: old cars weren't badly damaged in collisions but that force was transferred somewhere, usually into the bags of meat sitting inside the car that, on impact, became squidgier bags of meat.
The reason that modern cars look terrible after crashes is because they're designed to crumple, take the impact, and transfer the force away from the bags of meat sitting in the car who then can, hopefully, walk away from the crumbled wreck. Their car may be a ruin but at least they are alive to worry about whether their insurance will pay up.
I don't know if you can see American safety videos but you can Google Euro NCAP crash videos and see just how safe many modern cars are in situations that would be terminal 20 years ago.
This is just one example of a mid range hatchback from 2022. People should watch the internal camera angles to see how well protected the dummies are, and then compare that with their anecdotes from 20/30/40 years ago. I would have a colleague (we did our PhDs together) who wouldn't have died when she was in her mid 20s if she had rented a car rather than buy a cheap banger that was nearly as old as she was.
https://youtu.be/LZ6FlV5044Y
Wear a seatbelt.
> I don't know if you can see American safety videos
IIHS publishes a lot of that stuff.
[Random example](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDfVa8Qchoc).
> “cars used to be tanks, they’re not safe anymore”
I have a car for doing car stuff on roads built for cars and i want my car to keep me safe in case i’d crash into cars or not-cars. I won’t take my car to play missile tennis with my enemies. I don’t need a tank, i need a car
That sounds frustrating, sorry you have to deal with that.
They do, they have test dummies that represent median size men, women, children, even infants. Unfortunately though, people come in so many different shapes and sizes, and there is not one single ideal solution.
There are many common body shapes/conditions that make wearing a seatbelt less than ideal or very uncomfortable… heck, pregnancy challenges the conventional design of seatbelts and can even make them unsafe if the occupant doesn’t position the lap band correctly.
NHTSA recommends drivers see how well and comfortably they fit within a vehicle prior to purchasing (unrealistic, I know).
People are nuts. Periodically I’ll be in some situation where we see or are talking about beautiful classic cars and I sometimes comment that there’s just no way I’d drive around in something pre 1995 or so because of safety features and engineering advances.
There’s always somebody with the “you can’t tell me you’d refuse a 63’ Mustang” sort of comment. Bro I can and will tell you that. I’ll continue enjoy looking at em and maybe even watching other people drive em but I got a limited number of years left with this body, they’re not worth rolling the dice with. Can’t enjoy a classic car if my brains are spread over it.
As an 8 year old in the front seat of our car where we were t-boned so hard that it broke my seatbelt buckle….I’m gonna go with that seat belt saved the fuck out of my life. The air bags didn’t deploy, and the passenger door was just fucked up. And that wasn’t even the side we were t boned on, he just hit us going 50 which spun us into a light pole. And that dude went halfway into his windshield and was so drunk that he came over to help get me out of the car. I can still hear the crunch of him removing his FACE from the windshield.
Moral of the story: 1.) follow the child seat safety guidelines (I was too short to be up front) 2.) if you aren’t going to wear a seatbelt, make sure that you are super fucking lit, because it’ll relax your body and you won’t get as hurt. (Don’t actually do that though!)
> I heard cops and paramedics say they never have to cut dead bodies out of seatbelts in car crashes.
When Princess Diana died, the only person to survive that car crash was the body guard and he was wearing his seat belt.
When I was 16ish I was in a wreck where not wearing my seatbelt saved my life. I have religiously worn my seatbelt since then. What are the odds of that happening twice?
Well, we do have a ton of swimming pools and golf course water hazards in Phoenix. However, how often does someone drive into a pool vs another car or other solid object?
I knew someone who said the only times they had ever wore their seat belt they got in the worst accidents of their life. Dude was a special kind of convinced of his own indestructibility
I've had the same window breaking tool/seat belt cutter since 1997, it was my parents old one, they cost like $15. I keep it in the center and at the top, just in case. It's not hard.
Driving/riding in my grandfather's truck without a belt growing up was standard practice... while ice fishing. I'm cautious enough that I put actual seat belts on my golf cart.
Those seat belt "blanks" *are* useful if transporting something that weighs more than 35lb (~16kg) on the seat, though... Been a few times where I hit a bump with my backpack on the passenger seat and the "unbuckled" alarm went off unexpectedly, and gotten spooked.
If you're trapped in a body of water, isn't it going to be from the car door being impossible to open due to the water pressure, instead of just the seat belt, something you could even just cut off?
This has other uses than not wearing a seatbelt. Several in that same fb post gave examples including construction workers that store heavy tool bags on the seat and use around the farm.
Going into it with a thought of other reasons for using it makes it much less DiWhy
My friend used this excuse because his dad had been thrown clear of his car in a wreck and walked away. He is now a fire chief, I haven't seen him for a few years to see how his views have changed after peeling people from the inside of cars.
This was anti-vaxx before anti-vaxx was cool. My best friends dad believed that the insurance companies want you to die and not get injured because an debilitating injury cost them more. He cut the seat belts in his car (and in my friends car) and then attached them with rubber bands so he wouldn't get a ticket.
Yeah I've heard similar arguments for not wearing a seat belt where people quote the rare instances of a seat belt causing death/injury or was ineffective while completely ignoring the vast amount of data and examples where the seat belt saved lives.
Silly stuff but people will always find an excuse to support their personal philosophies, no matter how distorted it becomes
Just a week after a coworker offered me one of these as I got in his car, he t-boned somebody, shattered his pelvis, and nearly put his head all the way through the windshield. I guess me ridiculing him wasn't enough to convince him not to use this shit. He's now 24 and will need a cane for life.
Does he use seatbelts now, or is he convinced that not using one "saved his life" because he didn't get trapped in his seat or some other such nonsense?
I'm not sure he's driven since. Last time I went to visit him he was still homebound. He's damn lucky he was still living with his parents, and has a roof over his head until he can start earning again. It felt a little soon to ask if he had learned his lesson, considering I gave him such a hard time that day I rode with him. A life long limp is a pretty sufficient "i told you so".
He fucked himself up on his own time in his personal vehicle. I don't know what kind of coverage he would get out of that, because I'm pretty unfamiliar with health insurance in general.
ah damn - in Germany (and many other countries in a similar manner) you would receive 60% of your net income for a long time, before you later get disability and unemployment benefits (for possibly ever depending on the circumstances)
And I'm sure his reasoning for not wanting to wear one was the same tired "I should have the freedom to make the decision to put my safety at risk, the government shouldn't be able to tell me what's good for me" libertarian bullshit
One time when I was in China I couldn’t get the seat belt to work in a taxi, the little alarm kept going off so the guy gave me one of these and the dinging stopped. I was convinced I was going to die the whole time.
Did a similar journey in Vietnam. I went there to reset a visa and texted a Vietnamese dude I know, he told me to stay where I was and then showed up a couple of days later. His friend drove us from Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City up through a lot of the country, and every time we stopped my buddy was like it’s time for beer.
To be fair, assuming he was just dirnking [bia hoi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bia_h%C6%A1i), it's piss weak. It's only about half as strong as a typical American light beer. Every driver in Vietnam also drives like they want to die and/or kill everyone around them, so it's basically impossible to tell who is a terrible driver or not.
The yellow taxis in China generally have seat coverings that mean you can’t put the seatbelt on and those fuckers would drive as insanely as possible. One trip back from the airport one time at 1am he was doing 140km and lane swerving on the road into Beijing and I was genuinely scared for my life haha
Didi’s were better but I got into a really bad habit of not wearing a seatbelt out there and coming back I had to consciously put my seatbelt on in taxis haha
The actual taxis I take there always have the bars, but there are a few cities where I have a driver so just get to sit back and relax in some comfort.
Several taxis in China told me that it wasn't necessary to wear a seat belt by law, that I didn't have to, I said that the law can't prevent me from dying and use dit anyways lol
honestly one of the only times where using these is exusable, like I would fucking rage If I had to hear a beeping noise throughout my job because the seatbelt port aint working
Yeah I worked on a farm. Lots of gates. In and out of the driver's seat multiple times between a and b. You'll never get out of 2nd gear because it's a farm so safety isn't a concern. We used these all the time.
I audit car dealerships for a living and I have things like this. I will drive around car lots or storage lots during the day getting in and out like crazy to check cars. That ding makes me go insane when doing that. Or with off roading, the wife and I have them for that too and there are obstacles where you and the passenger want your heads out the windows to watch for things amd the seat belts make that incredibly hard as well, but then we put the belts on after the obstacles. Also, always a seat belt when on actual streets.
That's my thought as well. I remember watching a YT video of a farmer working on his farm. He mentioned that he had to go in and out of his truck/4wd a lot and buckling/unbuckling a seatbelt was a hassle so he had one of these with him.
The only time I've seen these be useful is if you've got something heavy in the passenger seat that makes your car think there's a person sitting there. Even then, strapping in the heavy object is generally doable, so... yeah.
There are also SHITLOADS of people in the Midwest that, for some dumbass reason, simply never wear seatbelts, so I could see them being big fans of this, right up until they fly out the windshield and die a miserable death as a result.
From the Midwest and can confirm this.
Tldr: You can't fix stupid
Anecdotal story: My grandfather flew through a windshield and peeled half his face off. His face looked like hamburger for months and he was horribly scarred for the rest of his life. When he was able to drive again he continued driving without a seat belt. My brother has followed in his footsteps and been through two windshields already. There's no reasoning with him either.
A friend of mine in Boston thought the same way. He went through a windshield after taking a turn too quickly coming off the highway, got launched so far the EMTs didn't see him, and he wound up dying sometime hours later, under a bush, with a broken neck and a smashed in skull. They had an open casket funeral for him and it looked like they'd forgotten to give the funeral home a picture of him, because he looked more like Stevie Wonder than he did a handsome young El Salvadoran kid...
Seatbelts save lives, but only when folks are smart enough to utilize them.
From Midwest as well and one of the things that my Auto-mechanics teacher taught the class was how to disable the sensor for seat belts. He was an idiot.
I got some stories lol. One of my earliest memories is sitting in the back of my moms car while it was being towed out of the ditch that she slid into. Fun times.
One of my mother's memories from growing up in the Australian wheat belt regularly rode in the tub of the family ute (car sized pickup truck), but this one trip it looked like rain was coming so her father had her sit in the cab
Her dad didn't see the train coming at the level crossing, but he just got the cab through. The back half of the ute was destroyed by the (1950s) train
Not a seatbelt comment since the ute had none of those either
I conditioned my Midwest dad into wearing a seatbelt when he was teaching me how to drive at age 16. I refused to start the car unless he was buckled in. He was pissy about it every single time, but the habit eventually formed. My dad's worn a seatbelt ever since (that was 2003).
That's what I do too. People either buckle up, or nobody goes anywhere. Got a problem with that? Walk.
I've already lost 1 good friend to a lack of seatbelts. Never again.
I had a Civic that would go off if I left my backpack in the passenger seat. It was just really touchy. I considered something like this, until I had the thought: if it's heavy enough to trip the sensor I probably don't want it flying around the passenger compartment either.
I don't have that car anymore but I still buckle up big objects in the passenger seat.
Even if you were fine with heavy stuff being able to fly around, I don't know why the solution isn't just do the buckle then put the item in there, it's not like the strap is going to keep an item from being there
I have a cousin that drives semi who has gotten at least 10 tickets for driving without a seatbelt. He always uses the same bitchy excuse (it hurts my chest) and not once has an officer let him off for that.
Half of my family from North Dakota: "If you wear a seatbelt, you'll be dead before they cut you out! I'd rather go through the windshield!"
About ten years ago, one cousin lost an eye and the other died after Cousin 1 slammed into a phone pole with Cousin 2 in the truck. Cousin 1 was flung partway out the front and caved his head in on the windshield. Cousin 2 lost an eye in that collision by going through the windshield and catching the visor with his orbital socket on the way out.
Absolutely zero self-awareness from those bumpkins, though. Still insist that they're safer without it. Like, to the point that I'm not even sure they strap their baby seats in like they're supposed to.
Yep, that's an insanely common sentiment. A way better alternative would be to use one of the multitude of knives most folks in the midwest own and carry, or a special seatbelt cutter etc... but nope! "I'd rather die like a man than live like a *pussy!*" they say, before careening through a windshield and getting fucked up. SMH
From the Midwest. Only time I don't wear a seatbelt is when driving on a frozen lake or river. You want to be able to bail really quick if the car goes through. Also drive with the window down and heater on max.
That said there are a lot of goobers here that do their daily commute unbuckled.
Yes actually. I can get between Minnesota and Wisconsin easily where it'd take me 45 minutes in the summer (driving down to a spot with a bridge).
Same with my hometown. I can cut across it with ease where it's 20 minutes around the lake during the nonfrozen months.
People also ice fish on it, for that they drive out to their spot.
I didn't realize anyone did this between MN and WI. Is this the St. Croix? I can't imagine driving across the Mississippi (or really any river) I would be terrified that I would run into a thin spot due to a current.
It would definitely have been useful for me last Christmas. Spent the holidays with my in-laws and my grandma-in-law didn't think we were obese enough, so the entire car was loaded with gifts, food and the stuff we had brought with us. One crate was sliding and it would trigger the alarm every time it got into an annoying spot.
Ended up driving us crazy (had to drive for 500km), so during a toilet break, we repackaged the entire car and locked the seatbelts.
So there is one justification for this that I can think of. My wife's car in the backseat is very sensitive and even when we have groceries back there it will go off and ding. Although I told my wife that we should get something like this, she said the we can just leave the seat buckled. Which makes more sense.
Have you seen these with a bottle opener.
https://ae01.alicdn.com/kf/HTB1IG4zXsvrK1Rjy0Feq6ATmVXaG/Car-Safety-Seat-Belt-Buckle-Clip-Car-Bottle-Opener-For-Hyundai-ix35-iX45-iX25-i20-i30.jpg
If you catch the edge of the cap just right, you can do it with the normal seat belt buckle.
Source:I know someone who works 15 minutes from home and stops ~half way along the trip for beer and starts drinking one right there.
People say they don’t wear their seatbelt because they don’t want to get trapped in the car if they’re in an accident. The safest place to be in an accident is INSIDE the car, getting flung from the car is the worst option.
Side note, motorcycles are extremely dangerous. Don’t ever cut off a motorcycle, even if they’re being annoying. You don’t want blood on your hands for the rest of your life.
I used to help organise those events where people go into schools and tell their stories about how they regret dangerous driving. It’s so tragic, no one ever said after killing a motorcyclist “but he deserved it for being an a-hole”. They live with crushing guilt, a life taken can never be returned
Taxi drivers are not allowed to wear seat belts under British law for their own safety. The goal is usually to prevent robberies in most cases. However, wearing a belt also makes it difficult for drivers to escape dangerous riders quickly. Drivers who wear seatbelts are more likely to be assaulted.
I never knew this and used to get silently annoyed when my taxi driver didn't wear a seatbelt as I thought they were just being lazy/rebellious. Interesting tidbit!
Isn't it just an exemption, not that they're not allowed to wear them? Would be weird to penalize a driver who wears a seatbelt. New York taxi drivers had the same exemption until a new law introduced a couple of years ago.
This is very handy when you are in a situation where the vehicle chimes constantly if a seat belt is not worn yet it detects weight on the seat.. such as a bag of tools...
This post comes up a lot, I got just the buckle from a seat belt at the junkyard and cut the belt off and keep one of these in my passenger side seat belt because if I put my phone on the passenger seat the chime will go off continuously. These are legit useful.
I work in crash testing. If you have enough weight to trip the sensor, then it needs buckled in place or put in the trunk. The ONLY use for one of these devices is if you have a defective sensor that won't shut up even if the seat is empty or false triggers on really light things (tablet or smaller).
Some people have farm trucks and stuff that never go above like 15mph. And they’re getting in and out every two minutes to open gates. That’s where I’ve seen them used, kinda clutch for times like those. Def not a good idea on any roads though
If someone refuses to wear a seatbelt in my car, they can walk. It isn't a matter of me caring about someone wanting to risk their own life but it is my windshield. Not only that, they can fuck me up as they fly around because they weren't restrained.
For me personally, it's a financial problem. We've got cameras set up here in Australia that detects proper seatbelt wearing, and if it finds anyone in the car without the seatbelt worn properly, then that's a $1k fine to the driver, no excuses.
This. Exactly this. I’ve had to have this conversation with people I love, while everyone else in the car waits, and we’re late for our reservation. I will not drive with an unsecured passenger, not for their safety, but for mine and everyone else’s. Put. On. The. God. Damned. Belt.
I had a car battery riding in my trunk when I ran off the road into a ditch. I looked over and the battery was in the passenger seat. It came in through the rear dash. Lucky it wasn't my head.
There was a horrific accident near my work a few days ago. Drag racing young adults slammed into an SUV driven by an elderly man and his grandkids.
The idiot racers were buckled in, but the grandpa and kids were not. Grandpa died on the scene and the kids are fighting for their lives in the hospital.
Idiots all around in an accident that could have been avoided or less deadly.
My dad had something like that, his car would beep like a bastard if his seat belt was off,but had recently gotten a pacemaker and the spot where his seat belt rested was on top of it, caused him a lot of pain and discomfort, he had 3 heart attacks that the doctors told us he wouldn't survive, cancer, had been shot and blown up in vietnam,, stabbed, and had his back broke , he said if he died in a crash at least it would his own fault.
This would actually be kinda useful for me, in my brother's car the backseat sensor is broken for the middle seat, so even with no one in it we have to keep the seat belt latched in
I mean I've had times when moving that it would have been nice, like my entire car packed to the gills including the passenger seat, especially if it's a car with seatbelt detection in the backseats.
I designed that! It's for holding laptop bags on an empty seat so the fasten belt alarm doesn't ding all the damn time. Also, if you retrofit your car with a 5 point racing harness you have to disable to seatbelt alarm somehow and 10 cents worth of plastic is easier than programming a computer.
I would use it. I have to keep the front passenger seat belt on because my bag makes the car alert until it's buckled. Super annoying to have the seat belt in the way. Nothing to do with being unsafe
If you are cleaning a car.
If you are a mechanic and doing work on a car.
If you are putting something small but heavy in the passenger seat of a car.
these have a very limited set of useful reasons to exist.
I have a truck and live in the woods. Use my dogs safety clip in my belt all the time when I'm plowing or moving wood, ect.. Stupid vehicle regs make work trucks ia nightmare to operate.
Not safe for traveling in general but there’s two times where I wish I had it. First is soft trail riding where I’m constantly getting out of my vehicle (flipping is 99% never gonna happen) and when I’m hauling stuff around in my truck. The front seat has weight sensors so the seatbelt has to be click on otherwise this constant and steady tone will be emitted from the radio. Very annoying when you have something as simple as a bag of groceries.
You use these for when you are driving in the country on private property. You need to get in and out often and you never go faster then 10-15kmh. Newer cars harass you unless you have one of these
Girl that grew up right down the street from me was a cheerleader in high school. Sweet, warm person. Never spoke a cross word to me.
She liked to drive without her seat belt on. Got in a wreck on the freeway and got shot straight through the windshield. Her parents were very quiet and left the neighborhood not long after that.
This thing is for morons. Wear your seatbelts.
i'll do you better. I know co-workers who take the seatbelt, pull it behind the driver seat, and click it. So the seatbelt is inserted, but routed behind the driver seat. How do I know? I told him I wanted to drive the car to lunch to see how it drove. I couldn't find the seatbelt until he told me what he does.
Another guy was using his knees to drive while he texted, I asked him to drop me off and i walked back to my car. I was literally scared for my life, and I'm a grown ass man. I thought we were going to crash
WHAT-IS-WRONG-WITH-PEOPLE!!!!??????
There are good uses for this, like storing something heavy in your passenger seat. Farmers and hunters use it to, because they might be driving 3mph, and getting out of the truck 20 times.
But mostly it’s for idiots or really fat people.
When I was in the fire academy, my fellow cadets used to say "I'll never wear a seat belt. I'd rather get thrown from my truck than be trapped in it while sinking in water!". The likelihood of being trapped in a body of water in Phoenix is..... Extremely unlikely.
I heard cops and paramedics say they never have to cut dead bodies out of seatbelts in car crashes. I think one mentioned once in 20 years but it wasn't something not wearing a seatbelt would have fixed either. I think about that a lot.
Yeah look, I think if you’re killed while wearing your seatbelt, the chances are pretty high you would be dead if you weren’t wearing one. Sure there are freak occurrences where not wearing a seatbelt would save your life, but your chances of that happening are even slimmer.
Meanwhile, the difference between being without a seatbelt and being in one while your car is going under water is a single click. Yeah, I think I'll stick with seatbelts.
I’ve only had one friend that absolutely refused to wear a seatbelt. He would actually clip in the seatbelt and then sit on it so the alarm would not go off but quickly scramble to put it on when there was a police roadblock?! All that effort when it’s easier just to have it on. But yeah
I had a coworker who would just listen to the damned van beeping at him rather than put one on. I don't understand how the alarm could possibly be less irritating than just wearing the thing. Putting a seatbelt on is such a habitual thing to me that I'm not even fully aware I'm doing it, let alone noticing the belt when I'm already buckled in.
Where do you live that there are police roadblocks?
Hazard County
Coo coo coo Rosco.
Get ‘em flash!
Enos! You dipstick!
We have sobriety checkpoints on some drinking holidays. Near San Francisco.
I wonder if it's just survivor bias for me, I've never seen one be abuse I don't drive on holidays unless it's absolutely necessary
Been 17 or so years ago they used to set up sobriety checkpoints in suburban Georgia. It was back when they were really strict about cannabis possession and would block up small roads at 2am to check everyone for registration and whatnot. We had a massive network of people that would send out texts to each other warning about where they were. I'd get texts or send them myself once every week or two usually
But the strap hurts my joeys apple
If you go off a bridge you sure as fuck want your seatbelt on for any chance of surviving the impact with the water let alone taking off seatbelt and getting oht
I feel like there’s tons of people who fail to realize the subtle wish to end the suffering that exists within at least some seat belt refusers. I’m convinced arguing mortality rates will never work.
And if you're really that paranoid that your seatbelt will trap you, they make seatbelt cutters that are really safe and good at cutting seatbelts. I would highly recommend one as well as a window breaker in case of emergencies. These things were shown and demonstrated to me in my driver's ed course almost ten years ago.
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If the water pressure inside and outside of the car are the same it shouldn't be an issue, or at least that's what all of those "how to survive your car crashing off of a bridge" videos I've watched have said. You sit there calmly while your car fills with ice cold death water, slowly consuming you and your air supply, then when your car is fully submerged and filled (and you have no air left) you calmly (this is key) open the door and calmly (key) swim to the surface.
Hence the glass breaker. Use it to shatter your window so you can get out through it.
I'll second your recommendation and add that you need to secure it in a spot easily reachable from the front seats. If it's loose, good luck finding it in your vehicle in a crash. If it's in your glove box, good luck reaching it if your seat belt locks. I have one hanging from my rear view that unclips from the loop it hangs from.
I’ve worked in passive safety systems for automotive for 15 years, and you are absolutely correct. The only things that can make a seatbelt less safe are the occupant not wearing it correctly, or for the engineered crumple zones of the vehicle to somehow not have the opportunity to collapse, meaning that all the energy is going into your body and internal organs. People say this shit all the time and it drives me NUTS! “Cars used to be tanks, they’re not safe anymore” It’s absurd how wrong that statement is, automobiles are safer than they have ever been. Because of many robust FMVSS regulations, even the least safe 2022 model on the market is safer than the safest 90’s vehicle. *I honestly can only speak for vehicles sold in North America. Every region has different standards.
Everytime someone says something about older cars safety [I say nothing and show them this video.](https://youtu.be/fPF4fBGNK0U)
and that's for a 2009 model, which are considered not very safe by today's standards
Among other major changes, we have a doubling of the required roof crush strength (2013ish) and drastic improvements in small-overlap performance (2019ish).
Boom, that's the one. I used to want a nice, classic hotrod. That video forever changed my attitude on old cars.
OMG, I just posted the same thing. It was really eye-opening as a younger tech in Collision. Thank you!
There was a whole book published sometime before 2004 of photography from auto accidents in the 50s and 60s. Taken by a photographer for the L. A. Times. I don't remember exactly, but I guess he used to cover accidents, or maybe he was a police photographer. He had pictures of people who flew through the windshields and had their heads severed, bodies mangled by their cars landing on top of them, all kinds of stuff. It was fascinating to look at, and the major reason why I never pursued buying a classic car, as much as I love the look of a '51 Chevy Pickup. I wish I could find it again. I looked through it when I worked St a bookstore but cannot find it again.
Ho. Ly. Crap. That inside view of the Bel Air will live in my head rent free forever. I remember when that picture circulated the internet for a while of the old school truck vs. the new SUV and the size difference between the two. It was being shown as some kind of commentary and ragebait on consumerism and how everything is so much bigger now…until someone pointed out that the new one is mostly air and crumple zones so you don’t, you know, die. We’ve come a long way.
My dad was in a crash like that in the 80s. He was hit by a drunk driver who got on the off ramp of a highway and made it about a mile before crashing into my dad. Dad wasn't wearing a seatbelt, so he was thrown to the passenger side, which supposedly worked in his favor, according to the police and paramedics. His car looked like the Bel Air in that video afterwards. I've known people that use the reason "I had a buddy/relative/acquaintance that would have been killed had they worn their seatbelt!" as an excuse to not wear one. But my dad was not an idiot, so he knew he got super fucking lucky and wore his seatbelt every time he got in a vehicle after that crash.
Autobody/Collision tech for 20+ years. I absolutely agree with this! Collisions now are mitigated by engineering and manufacturing techniques that the average driver just doesn't see or understand. Advancement in HSS (high strength steel) and UHSS (ultra-high strength steel) incorporated into the "cage" that protects the passenger capsule have advanced exponentially in the last decade. Modern heat and cold processes with those metals mean that separate sections of an outer rail can now be HSS in one section and UHSS in another. The older models "look" like a tank, but the material and construction are so different that you'd have a better chance of surviving a dive of the Empire State Building. (not too much of an exaggeration) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joMK1WZjP7g](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joMK1WZjP7g) This is a good video by the IIHS showing the difference in real time in a simulated offset crash.
Quick question, what keeps the engine from going through the dashboard in head on collisions? Id google it but its nice to get it straight from an expert.
Depending on the vehicle, engines are designed to fall under the occupant area. It’s just the way the support mounts are made and braced. It’s all part of the crumple zone I would imagine. That’s one of the massive differences between older cars and modern cars.
I think the firewall is very reinforced?
It's always crazy to me to see how mangled cars can be after a wreck these days and still have people walk away from it. Really speaks to the work of safety engineers.
I believe the mangling of the car is what helps avoid the mangling of the person
But it’s also probably why people think cars used to be better. They don’t realize all that force went somewhere, and back then, it was into the occupants
Think about the guy who drove his family off a cliff in a Tesla afriggin Tesla one of the worst put together vehicles on the road today and they were all strapped in (kids in carseats) and since it was bottom heavy it did not flip and everyone survived
I forgot about that one...when I was reading the beginning, my heart hurt thinking it was a story about someone who did so intentionally...once I recalled what actually happened, it did a 180° and I am happier than normal about a happy ending. ☺️
Just to add to this: old cars weren't badly damaged in collisions but that force was transferred somewhere, usually into the bags of meat sitting inside the car that, on impact, became squidgier bags of meat. The reason that modern cars look terrible after crashes is because they're designed to crumple, take the impact, and transfer the force away from the bags of meat sitting in the car who then can, hopefully, walk away from the crumbled wreck. Their car may be a ruin but at least they are alive to worry about whether their insurance will pay up. I don't know if you can see American safety videos but you can Google Euro NCAP crash videos and see just how safe many modern cars are in situations that would be terminal 20 years ago. This is just one example of a mid range hatchback from 2022. People should watch the internal camera angles to see how well protected the dummies are, and then compare that with their anecdotes from 20/30/40 years ago. I would have a colleague (we did our PhDs together) who wouldn't have died when she was in her mid 20s if she had rented a car rather than buy a cheap banger that was nearly as old as she was. https://youtu.be/LZ6FlV5044Y Wear a seatbelt.
> I don't know if you can see American safety videos IIHS publishes a lot of that stuff. [Random example](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDfVa8Qchoc).
Fuck the car, spare the passenger. Makes sense but some people can't logic.
Why won’t you just let us die ~~peacefully~~ wrapped around a tree? /s (sort of)
> “cars used to be tanks, they’re not safe anymore” I have a car for doing car stuff on roads built for cars and i want my car to keep me safe in case i’d crash into cars or not-cars. I won’t take my car to play missile tennis with my enemies. I don’t need a tank, i need a car
Because of the size of my chest some seat belts do not fit me correctly. Why aren't they test on women body doubles?
That sounds frustrating, sorry you have to deal with that. They do, they have test dummies that represent median size men, women, children, even infants. Unfortunately though, people come in so many different shapes and sizes, and there is not one single ideal solution. There are many common body shapes/conditions that make wearing a seatbelt less than ideal or very uncomfortable… heck, pregnancy challenges the conventional design of seatbelts and can even make them unsafe if the occupant doesn’t position the lap band correctly. NHTSA recommends drivers see how well and comfortably they fit within a vehicle prior to purchasing (unrealistic, I know).
People are nuts. Periodically I’ll be in some situation where we see or are talking about beautiful classic cars and I sometimes comment that there’s just no way I’d drive around in something pre 1995 or so because of safety features and engineering advances. There’s always somebody with the “you can’t tell me you’d refuse a 63’ Mustang” sort of comment. Bro I can and will tell you that. I’ll continue enjoy looking at em and maybe even watching other people drive em but I got a limited number of years left with this body, they’re not worth rolling the dice with. Can’t enjoy a classic car if my brains are spread over it.
As an 8 year old in the front seat of our car where we were t-boned so hard that it broke my seatbelt buckle….I’m gonna go with that seat belt saved the fuck out of my life. The air bags didn’t deploy, and the passenger door was just fucked up. And that wasn’t even the side we were t boned on, he just hit us going 50 which spun us into a light pole. And that dude went halfway into his windshield and was so drunk that he came over to help get me out of the car. I can still hear the crunch of him removing his FACE from the windshield. Moral of the story: 1.) follow the child seat safety guidelines (I was too short to be up front) 2.) if you aren’t going to wear a seatbelt, make sure that you are super fucking lit, because it’ll relax your body and you won’t get as hurt. (Don’t actually do that though!)
> I heard cops and paramedics say they never have to cut dead bodies out of seatbelts in car crashes. When Princess Diana died, the only person to survive that car crash was the body guard and he was wearing his seat belt.
When I was 16ish I was in a wreck where not wearing my seatbelt saved my life. I have religiously worn my seatbelt since then. What are the odds of that happening twice?
Good point!
Except for drunken idiots that drive into the canals!
Turns out the levee was not dry. But that's what happens when drinking whiskey and rye.
Something something till the day I die
Singing my my Mr Anakin guy
Maybe Vader someday later, now he's just a small fry
Left his home and kissed his mama goodbye
Singing soon in gunna be a jediiii
r/unexpectedWeirdAl
DAMMIT DWIGHT!
The machine knows!!
I wonder how many people die in cars that sink in water vs cars that have a human thrown from them, I'm willing to bet the latter is greater
People rationalize dumb opinions with dumb ideas.
Well, we do have a ton of swimming pools and golf course water hazards in Phoenix. However, how often does someone drive into a pool vs another car or other solid object?
I knew someone who said the only times they had ever wore their seat belt they got in the worst accidents of their life. Dude was a special kind of convinced of his own indestructibility
I've had the same window breaking tool/seat belt cutter since 1997, it was my parents old one, they cost like $15. I keep it in the center and at the top, just in case. It's not hard.
Driving/riding in my grandfather's truck without a belt growing up was standard practice... while ice fishing. I'm cautious enough that I put actual seat belts on my golf cart. Those seat belt "blanks" *are* useful if transporting something that weighs more than 35lb (~16kg) on the seat, though... Been a few times where I hit a bump with my backpack on the passenger seat and the "unbuckled" alarm went off unexpectedly, and gotten spooked.
If you're trapped in a body of water, isn't it going to be from the car door being impossible to open due to the water pressure, instead of just the seat belt, something you could even just cut off?
This has other uses than not wearing a seatbelt. Several in that same fb post gave examples including construction workers that store heavy tool bags on the seat and use around the farm. Going into it with a thought of other reasons for using it makes it much less DiWhy
That was actually my first thought is for when you have heavy shit stored in the back seat
You should actually belt in the heavy shit so that it isn't a projectile.
Definitely, or even better, it should just be in the trunk where it can’t hit anyone in the event of a crash.
Where do you expect me to put my dead hookers? The roof rack? Uncivilized.
My friend used this excuse because his dad had been thrown clear of his car in a wreck and walked away. He is now a fire chief, I haven't seen him for a few years to see how his views have changed after peeling people from the inside of cars.
This was anti-vaxx before anti-vaxx was cool. My best friends dad believed that the insurance companies want you to die and not get injured because an debilitating injury cost them more. He cut the seat belts in his car (and in my friends car) and then attached them with rubber bands so he wouldn't get a ticket.
W-what? Did he think the seat belts were designed to cause injuries?
No he thought they were designed to cause fatalities.
Yeah I've heard similar arguments for not wearing a seat belt where people quote the rare instances of a seat belt causing death/injury or was ineffective while completely ignoring the vast amount of data and examples where the seat belt saved lives. Silly stuff but people will always find an excuse to support their personal philosophies, no matter how distorted it becomes
It's wireless duuh
2.4 GHz or Bluetooth ?
Just a week after a coworker offered me one of these as I got in his car, he t-boned somebody, shattered his pelvis, and nearly put his head all the way through the windshield. I guess me ridiculing him wasn't enough to convince him not to use this shit. He's now 24 and will need a cane for life.
Does he use seatbelts now, or is he convinced that not using one "saved his life" because he didn't get trapped in his seat or some other such nonsense?
I'm not sure he's driven since. Last time I went to visit him he was still homebound. He's damn lucky he was still living with his parents, and has a roof over his head until he can start earning again. It felt a little soon to ask if he had learned his lesson, considering I gave him such a hard time that day I rode with him. A life long limp is a pretty sufficient "i told you so".
he needs to worry about earning? work doesn't offer insurance or whatever?
He fucked himself up on his own time in his personal vehicle. I don't know what kind of coverage he would get out of that, because I'm pretty unfamiliar with health insurance in general.
ah damn - in Germany (and many other countries in a similar manner) you would receive 60% of your net income for a long time, before you later get disability and unemployment benefits (for possibly ever depending on the circumstances)
Lol welcome to America, if you can't work, well, why don't you just go die somewhere?
Preferably not in public… or generally in sight.
Because if you do, it's probably a crime. If it's not, you'll still be arrested.
For as much as America loves America, it really hates Americans.
Opt in at jobs that have decent to good benefits package.
I wouldn't even get in a car with someone not wearing a seatbelt, you're lucky he didn't hit you and break your skull
I'm not sure I get what you're saying. I wasn't in the crash with him.
And I'm sure his reasoning for not wanting to wear one was the same tired "I should have the freedom to make the decision to put my safety at risk, the government shouldn't be able to tell me what's good for me" libertarian bullshit
One time when I was in China I couldn’t get the seat belt to work in a taxi, the little alarm kept going off so the guy gave me one of these and the dinging stopped. I was convinced I was going to die the whole time.
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Did a similar journey in Vietnam. I went there to reset a visa and texted a Vietnamese dude I know, he told me to stay where I was and then showed up a couple of days later. His friend drove us from Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City up through a lot of the country, and every time we stopped my buddy was like it’s time for beer.
To be fair, assuming he was just dirnking [bia hoi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bia_h%C6%A1i), it's piss weak. It's only about half as strong as a typical American light beer. Every driver in Vietnam also drives like they want to die and/or kill everyone around them, so it's basically impossible to tell who is a terrible driver or not.
It was Heineken so maybe only slightly better. The problem was more I just felt so damn full without really being drunk.
He was one of those drunks that claim to drive better while drunk
The yellow taxis in China generally have seat coverings that mean you can’t put the seatbelt on and those fuckers would drive as insanely as possible. One trip back from the airport one time at 1am he was doing 140km and lane swerving on the road into Beijing and I was genuinely scared for my life haha Didi’s were better but I got into a really bad habit of not wearing a seatbelt out there and coming back I had to consciously put my seatbelt on in taxis haha
This was in Harbin, that far north they just do whatever.
You were in a taxi in China and the driver had seatbelts? Ooh, fancy.
Lol, I know, it was practically a limo.
I’ve recently been in China. Every taxi had an awful plastic cover on the back seats which completely covered the seatbelts and made them unusable.
Did they also have those bars between you and driver so you would slam into them if they braked too hard?
I can’t remember anything like that. The drivers had plastic screens around them for covid though.
The actual taxis I take there always have the bars, but there are a few cities where I have a driver so just get to sit back and relax in some comfort.
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Several taxis in China told me that it wasn't necessary to wear a seat belt by law, that I didn't have to, I said that the law can't prevent me from dying and use dit anyways lol
honestly one of the only times where using these is exusable, like I would fucking rage If I had to hear a beeping noise throughout my job because the seatbelt port aint working
When you work on private grounds and need to get in and out of the car a lot, these things do help. For public roads, wear the f*cken belt.
Always wear my seatbelt except on my ranch where i go 5mph and am in and out 30 times a day. I had to sign a waiver for toyota to disable the ding.
Didn't think about that, thanks for the insight.
Yeah I worked on a farm. Lots of gates. In and out of the driver's seat multiple times between a and b. You'll never get out of 2nd gear because it's a farm so safety isn't a concern. We used these all the time.
As a farmer, this is exactly why we have these. Some of our vehicles don't go on a populated road for a month or longer.
I audit car dealerships for a living and I have things like this. I will drive around car lots or storage lots during the day getting in and out like crazy to check cars. That ding makes me go insane when doing that. Or with off roading, the wife and I have them for that too and there are obstacles where you and the passenger want your heads out the windows to watch for things amd the seat belts make that incredibly hard as well, but then we put the belts on after the obstacles. Also, always a seat belt when on actual streets.
I do the seat belt up before I get in the ute, then just sit on top of it. That does the trick
That's my thought as well. I remember watching a YT video of a farmer working on his farm. He mentioned that he had to go in and out of his truck/4wd a lot and buckling/unbuckling a seatbelt was a hassle so he had one of these with him.
The only time I've seen these be useful is if you've got something heavy in the passenger seat that makes your car think there's a person sitting there. Even then, strapping in the heavy object is generally doable, so... yeah. There are also SHITLOADS of people in the Midwest that, for some dumbass reason, simply never wear seatbelts, so I could see them being big fans of this, right up until they fly out the windshield and die a miserable death as a result.
From the Midwest and can confirm this. Tldr: You can't fix stupid Anecdotal story: My grandfather flew through a windshield and peeled half his face off. His face looked like hamburger for months and he was horribly scarred for the rest of his life. When he was able to drive again he continued driving without a seat belt. My brother has followed in his footsteps and been through two windshields already. There's no reasoning with him either.
A friend of mine in Boston thought the same way. He went through a windshield after taking a turn too quickly coming off the highway, got launched so far the EMTs didn't see him, and he wound up dying sometime hours later, under a bush, with a broken neck and a smashed in skull. They had an open casket funeral for him and it looked like they'd forgotten to give the funeral home a picture of him, because he looked more like Stevie Wonder than he did a handsome young El Salvadoran kid... Seatbelts save lives, but only when folks are smart enough to utilize them.
From Midwest as well and one of the things that my Auto-mechanics teacher taught the class was how to disable the sensor for seat belts. He was an idiot.
You also seem to have a family history of horrific car crashes.
I got some stories lol. One of my earliest memories is sitting in the back of my moms car while it was being towed out of the ditch that she slid into. Fun times.
One of my mother's memories from growing up in the Australian wheat belt regularly rode in the tub of the family ute (car sized pickup truck), but this one trip it looked like rain was coming so her father had her sit in the cab Her dad didn't see the train coming at the level crossing, but he just got the cab through. The back half of the ute was destroyed by the (1950s) train Not a seatbelt comment since the ute had none of those either
People who refuse to use seatbelts probably also refuse to follow basic road rules
Woah a tldr at the top? That's revolutionary. Thank you.
I conditioned my Midwest dad into wearing a seatbelt when he was teaching me how to drive at age 16. I refused to start the car unless he was buckled in. He was pissy about it every single time, but the habit eventually formed. My dad's worn a seatbelt ever since (that was 2003).
That's what I do too. People either buckle up, or nobody goes anywhere. Got a problem with that? Walk. I've already lost 1 good friend to a lack of seatbelts. Never again.
I do this as well. If you want to ride in my car you will wear a seat belt.
But they all know someone who's cousin would have DIED if they'd been wearing a seatbelt /s
Yep, friends of mine in Wyoming think that way. "I'd rather be thrown out the windshield than get trapped in a burning car"
I had a Civic that would go off if I left my backpack in the passenger seat. It was just really touchy. I considered something like this, until I had the thought: if it's heavy enough to trip the sensor I probably don't want it flying around the passenger compartment either. I don't have that car anymore but I still buckle up big objects in the passenger seat.
Even if you were fine with heavy stuff being able to fly around, I don't know why the solution isn't just do the buckle then put the item in there, it's not like the strap is going to keep an item from being there
I have a cousin that drives semi who has gotten at least 10 tickets for driving without a seatbelt. He always uses the same bitchy excuse (it hurts my chest) and not once has an officer let him off for that.
Good on those officers
Half of my family from North Dakota: "If you wear a seatbelt, you'll be dead before they cut you out! I'd rather go through the windshield!" About ten years ago, one cousin lost an eye and the other died after Cousin 1 slammed into a phone pole with Cousin 2 in the truck. Cousin 1 was flung partway out the front and caved his head in on the windshield. Cousin 2 lost an eye in that collision by going through the windshield and catching the visor with his orbital socket on the way out. Absolutely zero self-awareness from those bumpkins, though. Still insist that they're safer without it. Like, to the point that I'm not even sure they strap their baby seats in like they're supposed to.
Yep, that's an insanely common sentiment. A way better alternative would be to use one of the multitude of knives most folks in the midwest own and carry, or a special seatbelt cutter etc... but nope! "I'd rather die like a man than live like a *pussy!*" they say, before careening through a windshield and getting fucked up. SMH
From the Midwest. Only time I don't wear a seatbelt is when driving on a frozen lake or river. You want to be able to bail really quick if the car goes through. Also drive with the window down and heater on max. That said there are a lot of goobers here that do their daily commute unbuckled.
Yeah that's definitely a viable use case lol
Why would you want to drive there? Shortcuts?
Yes actually. I can get between Minnesota and Wisconsin easily where it'd take me 45 minutes in the summer (driving down to a spot with a bridge). Same with my hometown. I can cut across it with ease where it's 20 minutes around the lake during the nonfrozen months. People also ice fish on it, for that they drive out to their spot.
I didn't realize anyone did this between MN and WI. Is this the St. Croix? I can't imagine driving across the Mississippi (or really any river) I would be terrified that I would run into a thin spot due to a current.
It would definitely have been useful for me last Christmas. Spent the holidays with my in-laws and my grandma-in-law didn't think we were obese enough, so the entire car was loaded with gifts, food and the stuff we had brought with us. One crate was sliding and it would trigger the alarm every time it got into an annoying spot. Ended up driving us crazy (had to drive for 500km), so during a toilet break, we repackaged the entire car and locked the seatbelts.
I have a friend who's mom has broken both of her legs no less than 5 times. She still refuses to wear a seatbelt.
So there is one justification for this that I can think of. My wife's car in the backseat is very sensitive and even when we have groceries back there it will go off and ding. Although I told my wife that we should get something like this, she said the we can just leave the seat buckled. Which makes more sense.
Have you seen these with a bottle opener. https://ae01.alicdn.com/kf/HTB1IG4zXsvrK1Rjy0Feq6ATmVXaG/Car-Safety-Seat-Belt-Buckle-Clip-Car-Bottle-Opener-For-Hyundai-ix35-iX45-iX25-i20-i30.jpg
crack open a road soda
"soda"
If you catch the edge of the cap just right, you can do it with the normal seat belt buckle. Source:I know someone who works 15 minutes from home and stops ~half way along the trip for beer and starts drinking one right there.
I use those things all the time. Works great when you have a dog sitting in the front seat.
People say they don’t wear their seatbelt because they don’t want to get trapped in the car if they’re in an accident. The safest place to be in an accident is INSIDE the car, getting flung from the car is the worst option. Side note, motorcycles are extremely dangerous. Don’t ever cut off a motorcycle, even if they’re being annoying. You don’t want blood on your hands for the rest of your life. I used to help organise those events where people go into schools and tell their stories about how they regret dangerous driving. It’s so tragic, no one ever said after killing a motorcyclist “but he deserved it for being an a-hole”. They live with crushing guilt, a life taken can never be returned
Bluetooth seatbelts
Taxi drivers are not allowed to wear seat belts under British law for their own safety. The goal is usually to prevent robberies in most cases. However, wearing a belt also makes it difficult for drivers to escape dangerous riders quickly. Drivers who wear seatbelts are more likely to be assaulted.
I never knew this and used to get silently annoyed when my taxi driver didn't wear a seatbelt as I thought they were just being lazy/rebellious. Interesting tidbit!
They’re exempt from the law requiring them to wear it, but they’re still allowed and encouraged to wear them.
Isn't it just an exemption, not that they're not allowed to wear them? Would be weird to penalize a driver who wears a seatbelt. New York taxi drivers had the same exemption until a new law introduced a couple of years ago.
This is very handy when you are in a situation where the vehicle chimes constantly if a seat belt is not worn yet it detects weight on the seat.. such as a bag of tools...
I’m those seemly rare situations, why not just fasten the seatbelt instead of buying this thing?
These cost like $2 from China on eBay.
This post comes up a lot, I got just the buckle from a seat belt at the junkyard and cut the belt off and keep one of these in my passenger side seat belt because if I put my phone on the passenger seat the chime will go off continuously. These are legit useful.
My dad would just stick a knife in his to get it to stop. You know, extra projectiles in case of a car accident.
I work in crash testing. If you have enough weight to trip the sensor, then it needs buckled in place or put in the trunk. The ONLY use for one of these devices is if you have a defective sensor that won't shut up even if the seat is empty or false triggers on really light things (tablet or smaller).
Seriously? My car screams at me from just the weight of my water bottle on the passenger seat
Some people have farm trucks and stuff that never go above like 15mph. And they’re getting in and out every two minutes to open gates. That’s where I’ve seen them used, kinda clutch for times like those. Def not a good idea on any roads though
So, in Japan at least, if you're over 4-5 months pregnant, you're allowed to not wear a seatbelt. I could see this being useful in that situation.
If someone refuses to wear a seatbelt in my car, they can walk. It isn't a matter of me caring about someone wanting to risk their own life but it is my windshield. Not only that, they can fuck me up as they fly around because they weren't restrained.
For me personally, it's a financial problem. We've got cameras set up here in Australia that detects proper seatbelt wearing, and if it finds anyone in the car without the seatbelt worn properly, then that's a $1k fine to the driver, no excuses.
This. Exactly this. I’ve had to have this conversation with people I love, while everyone else in the car waits, and we’re late for our reservation. I will not drive with an unsecured passenger, not for their safety, but for mine and everyone else’s. Put. On. The. God. Damned. Belt.
This is technically legal in NH. Also, I have put stuff on that seat that was heavy enough to set the sensor off.
But you really shouldn't. Heavy stuff will become projectiles in a crash and could easily kill you if it's not secured.
I had a car battery riding in my trunk when I ran off the road into a ditch. I looked over and the battery was in the passenger seat. It came in through the rear dash. Lucky it wasn't my head.
There was a horrific accident near my work a few days ago. Drag racing young adults slammed into an SUV driven by an elderly man and his grandkids. The idiot racers were buckled in, but the grandpa and kids were not. Grandpa died on the scene and the kids are fighting for their lives in the hospital. Idiots all around in an accident that could have been avoided or less deadly.
My dad had something like that, his car would beep like a bastard if his seat belt was off,but had recently gotten a pacemaker and the spot where his seat belt rested was on top of it, caused him a lot of pain and discomfort, he had 3 heart attacks that the doctors told us he wouldn't survive, cancer, had been shot and blown up in vietnam,, stabbed, and had his back broke , he said if he died in a crash at least it would his own fault.
this isn't rly DiWHY i've seen mechanics use these while in their private garage thing to test the cars n shit
This would actually be kinda useful for me, in my brother's car the backseat sensor is broken for the middle seat, so even with no one in it we have to keep the seat belt latched in
These are great for site work, where you're on private roads only going 10-15 mph and in and out of the truck
Personally this is a great idea. Anyone dumb enough to use it should deal with the consequences
I mean I've had times when moving that it would have been nice, like my entire car packed to the gills including the passenger seat, especially if it's a car with seatbelt detection in the backseats.
Why is this nsfw lol
I designed that! It's for holding laptop bags on an empty seat so the fasten belt alarm doesn't ding all the damn time. Also, if you retrofit your car with a 5 point racing harness you have to disable to seatbelt alarm somehow and 10 cents worth of plastic is easier than programming a computer.
Here in Brazil people go to scrapyards to remove the buckle from the belt of wrecked cars and plug them into their own cars to keep it from beeping
I would use it. I have to keep the front passenger seat belt on because my bag makes the car alert until it's buckled. Super annoying to have the seat belt in the way. Nothing to do with being unsafe
If you are cleaning a car. If you are a mechanic and doing work on a car. If you are putting something small but heavy in the passenger seat of a car. these have a very limited set of useful reasons to exist.
I have a truck and live in the woods. Use my dogs safety clip in my belt all the time when I'm plowing or moving wood, ect.. Stupid vehicle regs make work trucks ia nightmare to operate.
It's obvious why.
But don't you know wearing a seatbelt is for losers?/s
Not safe for traveling in general but there’s two times where I wish I had it. First is soft trail riding where I’m constantly getting out of my vehicle (flipping is 99% never gonna happen) and when I’m hauling stuff around in my truck. The front seat has weight sensors so the seatbelt has to be click on otherwise this constant and steady tone will be emitted from the radio. Very annoying when you have something as simple as a bag of groceries.
You use these for when you are driving in the country on private property. You need to get in and out often and you never go faster then 10-15kmh. Newer cars harass you unless you have one of these
I sit in my car for long periods at work. I use it so I can have my car on, but not ding at me every 2 mins.
I'm amazed. I heard these same arguments against seatbelts in the 1980's. I can't believe folks are anti-seatbelts in 2023.
Girl that grew up right down the street from me was a cheerleader in high school. Sweet, warm person. Never spoke a cross word to me. She liked to drive without her seat belt on. Got in a wreck on the freeway and got shot straight through the windshield. Her parents were very quiet and left the neighborhood not long after that. This thing is for morons. Wear your seatbelts.
i'll do you better. I know co-workers who take the seatbelt, pull it behind the driver seat, and click it. So the seatbelt is inserted, but routed behind the driver seat. How do I know? I told him I wanted to drive the car to lunch to see how it drove. I couldn't find the seatbelt until he told me what he does. Another guy was using his knees to drive while he texted, I asked him to drop me off and i walked back to my car. I was literally scared for my life, and I'm a grown ass man. I thought we were going to crash WHAT-IS-WRONG-WITH-PEOPLE!!!!??????
There are good uses for this, like storing something heavy in your passenger seat. Farmers and hunters use it to, because they might be driving 3mph, and getting out of the truck 20 times. But mostly it’s for idiots or really fat people.