WEAR YOUR SEATBELTS! A close friend of my girlfriend was on his way to school this morning and was killed. They say if he had his seatbelt on he would still be living.

43% of car drivers/passengers don't wear seatbelts

Parents: The vast majority (80%) of rear seat passengers - mostly children - are never buckled up

Male Drivers: Male drivers are reluctant to use seatbelts - their wearing rate is 20% below that of females

Mature Drivers: Unfamiliar with legal requirement to wear a belt - front and rear

Without a seat belt 3 out of 4 people will be killed or seriously injured in a 30mph head-on collision (Source: National Survey on Seat Belt Wearing, NRA 1999, published May 2000)

When a car driven by an unbelted driver at 55mph hits a solid object, this is what happens** - this is reality:

0.1 second The front bumper and grille collapse

0.2 second The bonnet crumples, rises and strikes the windscreen. Spinning rear wheels lift from the ground. Bumpers begin to wrap themselves around the solid object. Instinct causes the driver to stiffen his legs against the impending crash. They snap at the knee joint. Although the car's frame has been halted, the rest of the car is still going at 55 mph.

0.3 second The steering wheel starts to disintegrate and the steering column aims for the driver's chest

0.4 second At this point, two feet of the car's front is wrecked, the rear is still moving at 35 mph. The driver's body is still travelling at 55mph

0.5 second The driver is impaled on the steering column. The blood rushes into his/her lungs

0.6 second The driver's feet are ripped out of tightly laced shoes. The break pedal snaps off. The car frame buckles in the middle. The driver's head smashes into the windscreen. The rear wheels, still spinning, fall back to the ground.

0.7 second Hinges rip loose, doors fly open

1.0 second The last 3 tenths of a second mean nothing to the driver - he/she is already dead

*Provisional figure to 29/04/02 **'Energy and Momentum in Cars' Duke University, USA



The guy's shoes are still in the floorboards of his truck.
Think guys, just buckle up for your own safety and for the safety of others in your vehicle and around you.

Sorry to hear that :(

Rewdog, what you say is so true.

I ask everyone to make sure they wear a seat belt before they consider driving a car or even starting the engine, make it a habbit to put your belt on before starting the car.

Only last week my brother was involved in an accident at 30Mph, someone pulled out of a junction on him and he had no time at all to stop.

As a result the person in the other car wearing a seat belt simply got out of the car after the crash, my brother on the other hand was not wearing a seat belt and on impact he was thrown through the windscreen of the car !!!, suffered serious facial injuries and a shattered knee, lucky he survived.

Sorry to hear about your friend Rewdog

With my car im fairly safe, if got:

Seatbelts with Crash Tensioning
Anti Whiplash Headrests and seats
Rear Airbags
Front Airbags
Side Airbags
Curtain airbags

4 Disc Brakes with Enhanced Braking (Individual Wheel Braking control) + ABS (AntiLock)

18" Wheels for some nice additional grip

anything else ive got on there i forgot to mention ill put it in later :D

Those statistics are shocking. :(

Fully loaded on the safety side with both the car and the truck. My vehicle does NOT MOVE until all passengers are buckled. Period. It's such a habit now I can't remember the last time I had to ask a child to buckle.

Now our bikes are of course are a bit different however... Even in the summer you'll never see me on the bike without full leathers, gloves, and a helmet. Sure it's hot... but the pavement is worse. The bike does NOT MOVE unless proper pants, sleeves, and helmets are on all passengers. I -might- be less strict with the bikes if they were cruisers but our bikes are street racers so it's common to be on them at high speeds ( > 100mph) around tight curves...

It's just plain common sense.

Do stay safe.... Preventable accidents are the worst kind and carry the worst long term guilt for the survivors.

Thanks for the reminder and sorry for the loss.

Everything is a calculated risk. Wear them if you like. I always buckle up my children but rarely do it for myself. Its a risk I choose to take.

I always make a point of making sure everyone is buckled up, especially if they are a passenger sat behind anyone else in the car - even if you yourself are wearing a seatbelt you can die just the same if the person behind isn't.

Sometimes the reverse is true.

One of my family members was the front seat passenger of a friends car that was involved in a bumper-to-door accident last year. The whole seat came lose, and luckily he wasn't wearning a seat belt otherwise he would of been crushed and died on impact.

Originally posted by Rewdog
WEAR YOUR SEATBELTS! I do... I have to; it's the law.

If I ddin't buckle up I could be facing some hefty fines...

sorry to hear about that.

i had a very bad accident too this summer car fell on me a bolt going in my skull and no wheelz where on the back of the car it should have crushed me flat but luckily it did'nt to read just a little of it http://www.ws6zxr.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=10047&highlight=pray

so i know how you and his family feels :(

btw... I ALWAYS put my seat belt on first thing and make everyone wear one too.

Originally posted by sadistikal
Everything is a calculated risk. Wear them if you like. I always buckle up my children but rarely do it for myself. Its a risk I choose to take.

nice way of thinking about it, but this is probably a risk you dont need to take, are there not enough risks in life already?

Originally posted by sadistikal
Everything is a calculated risk. Wear them if you like. I always buckle up my children but rarely do it for myself. Its a risk I choose to take.

And how would your children cope if they see you slamming through a window and just putting a seatbelt on would stop that. It is not IMO a calculated risk as there are more factors than just you driving safley. Sometimes you have no choice about wether you are in an accident - it can happen due to the stupidity of a crazy drug addict, or joy rider or an alchy or just some idiot who tries doesnt like being the last in a tail back.

That is just too much of a risk, I personally would not wish my children to be brought up without there father because of a stupid desicion like that. I have done it in the past, but after reading the above post It has reminded me of the seriousness of it and I certainly will be buckelling up every time from now on!

When buying a car people normally dont look at the safety features. They look for the attractive designs. These statistics are scary.:bomb:

phew, good thing i wear my seatbelt! It sends chills down my spine to think that happens at 55mph (90kph?) what happens even while wearing my seatbelt shuold i hit anything on my 2 am drives up north at 180kph :eek:

Then again, whats on the up north highway at 2:00 am on a wednesday night? :)

It's illegal not to wear a seatbelt in Australia. It's illegal also not to wear a helmet on your motorcycle.

If everyone was following the law...

No drunk-driving.
No speeding.
No unsafe passing.
No staying too close to the vehicle in front.
Stopping when red or at stop-sign.
Signaling before turning.
Looking before turning.

And so on and so on...

When will people learn?

No speeding? I dont think that would ever be possible. How about no speeding in heavy traffic? :D