Does anyone NOT wear seat belts in cars?

[Liberty Belle]

Any parent who does not wear a seatbelt obviously doesn't care very much about their children since they are willing to (greatly) increase the probability of leaving them without a parent. It makes me wonder why they had children in the first place.

Honestly, I don't think it shows they don't care much about their children. I think it probably just comes down to ignorance.

 

[KAMLEM]

I have known many many people who have been killed in car accident getting trapped under a car.

I hear people say this as an argument against seat belts, and I have to wonder, statistically, how does a person actually know several people who have perished in this manner? The number of people killed in accidents in this manner has to be small in comparison to overall accident deaths. For one person to know multiple people who have been in such an accident seems to be hard to believe.

That's what I was thinking. Exactly how many people do you (happygirl) know that have been killed this way?

My MIL would not wear belts period. She would sit in the back seat to avoid them. One day I made a hard stop due to the guy in front of me making a panic stop. And I follow the 2 second rule.

What is the 2 second rule?

We have the camera system in one of our cars from our insurance company and he has been caught on that several times.

What is the camera system??

 

[HardShell]

... Do you always enforce seat belts in your vehicle or not? To me it's such a no brainer.

Yes. Same here.

 

[HardShell]

And for any fellow stats geeks out there...

http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/departments/nrd-30/ncsa/STSI/USA WEB REPORT.HTM

Good resource.

 

[DizBelle]

Honestly, I don't think it shows they don't care much about their children. I think it probably just comes down to ignorance.

Likewise, if they don't care enough to learn about being a good parent, then they don't care that much about their kids.

 

[Wish_I_Was_At_WDW]

What is the 2 second rule?

It's that you aren't any closer to the vehicle in front of you than the distance you can travel in 2 seconds. Like if the vehicle in front of you passes a sign it should take you 2 seconds to reach that same sign.

 

[Fintastic]

Sorry, that sounds bad, but I've taken care of so many kids who were in the back seat in car seats, and were uninjured, but the unrestrained parents died on the scene. It's so sad holding them waiting until some family member comes to get them.

That's horrible.

I just can't imagine having somebody tell my family that I would still be alive if I'd worn my seat belt. I don't want to do that to them.

 

[MarkBarbieri]

Everyone in our family wears seatbelts. Car accidents kill something like 40,000 people in the US every year. Compared with almost everything that you do, it's a very dangerous activity. Seatbelts help reduce the danger significantly.

Other things worth considering:

• Some cars are much safer than others. It's a combination of size and design. The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety regularly crash test vehicles. I like the website Informed For Life because it uses that data to give a risk rating to every car. When I buy cars, I only consider those near the top of the list.
• Driving habits are just as important as seatbelts. Don't get distracted. Don't text. Don't dial your phone. Don't spend a lot of time mucking with your radio. Don't spend a lot of time programming your GPS. If you need to do something that is going to take your attention away from the road, pull over first.
• Secure the stuff in your car. I never thought about it until last year, but we always travel with a minivan full of stuff. Now I have all that stuff under a cargo net. If we ever had a mild accident, we could easily have been whacked from behind by a suitcase, a camera bag, etc.
• Leave a good following distance. I always preach the 2 second rule. When the car ahead of you passes a landmark (like a sign or road joint), count off the seconds. You shouldn't reach that same point until 2 seconds have passed. That gives you more time to react and more room to maneuver if the car ahead of you does something stupid.
• Always assume that the others driving near you are lunatics and might do crazy things. Anticipate what they might do. That person next to might change lanes into you...what will you do? That person ahead of you and to your left may try to exit the freeway to your right...what will you do? Anticipate.
• Keep your car well maintained. Don't drive with bald tires, worn out wiper blades, missing headlights, etc. I was behind a guy with no break lights this morning. I quickly changed lanes and let someone else deal with that.
• If you get new tires, put them on the back instead of the front. I know that sounds counter-intuitive, but if you have two good tires and two not-so-good tires, you are less likely to loose control if the good tires are in the back.

 

[clgwli]

They were very lucky. There isn't a morning that goes by here that they don't report some horrendous crash in Central Florida on the news. The vast majority of the time, the people who died were ejected from the vehicles. I'm very sure there are some cases where seatbelts do not help or maybe, contribute to the injuries, but those cases are few and far between.

Trust me we know. My good friend who survived is very much a seatbelt enforcer as well. I think the only reason why they survived was that it was a residential street, so they were going slower and they landed on soft ground (grass and dirt) instead of a highway.

I never say this to be a "don't wear it because 3 survived and one didn't" but more of "even those who survived and those who lost a loved one still push for it"

I don't want to make people feel like it is okay by telling this story at all. We are very rare in this case to have the 3 live (only one of those three had a major injury) and the one with the seatbelt dying. It affected us so grately that it makes us less likely to ever want to do anything irresponsible again.

I hope that makes sense. I just know that thanks to this I take vehicle crash test ratings very seriously as well. If it doesn't get a 4 star or above I will not buy that vehicle. Safety is very important because of this.

 

[Eeyores Butterfly]

It's that you aren't any closer to the vehicle in front of you than the distance you can travel in 2 seconds. Like if the vehicle in front of you passes a sign it should take you 2 seconds to reach that same sign.

Actually, in Missouri they tell you three seconds and I try to follow that rule at a minimum, I feel like it is not enoguh for highway speeds however.

 

[KAMLEM]

I have always heard to keep one car length for every 10 mph you are travelling between you and the car you are following.

 

[jamimb]

I have always heard to keep one car length for every 10 mph you are travelling between you and the car you are following.

The car length thing varies from state to state. I was raised in WV and got my license there. On the written portion of the test in that state is says that a safe following distance is two full car lengths. I moved to MS as an adult and had to pass the written exam again there to obtain a license. Well I failed the first time because MS law was so different from WV law. One difference is the safe following distance in Ms (at the time at least this was yrs ago) was one car length.

 

[rie'smom]

We all wear seat belts. One of my daughter's friends died last Thursady when she was thrown from a truck. Another girl died the next day and a third has 3 crushed ribs.

My dad sold insurance here (south Louisiana) years ago before he became a lawyer and the insurance companies used to say we shouldn't wear seat belts because of all the water in the area. People in a wreck could drown. This did happen to one of my good friends in high school. Her car went into the bayou and she could not get the seat belt to release.

 

[MarkBarbieri]

I have always heard to keep one car length for every 10 mph you are travelling between you and the car you are following.

I think it is easier to judge the gap by a time interval (counting the seconds between when you and the car ahead of you pass a marker) than it is estimating car lengths. I also think that the 10mph our rule is too close.

If you assume that a typical car is about 16 feet long (a 2009 Honda Accord is 16.175 feet long), the car length / 10 mph rule works out to right around 1 second.

A car driving at X mph travels X * 5,280 / 3,600 feet per second. Given the car length per 10mph rule, you get X/10*16 feet. So you have (X/10*16)/(X*5,280/3,600). The X's cancel out and you are left with 1.1 seconds.

I've found that a lot of people think that the 2 second (or 10mph rule) is to give them room to stop. The purpose is really to give you room to react. Let's say that you are following a car at 70mph and have a 2 second following distance (around 200 feet). The car ahead of you drives over a board with nails. Even if you instantly hit your brakes, you would be 50 past the board by the time your car stopped. That 2 second distance isn't enough room to stop. The truth is that people don't react instantly. The 2 seconds give you time to react.

 

[torinsmom]

We all wear seat belts. One of my daughter's friends died last Thursady when she was thrown from a truck. Another girl died the next day and a third has 3 crushed ribs.

My dad sold insurance here (south Louisiana) years ago before he became a lawyer and the insurance companies used to say we shouldn't wear seat belts because of all the water in the area. People in a wreck could drown. This did happen to one of my good friends in high school. Her car went into the bayou and she could not get the seat belt to release.

One of those life hammers would be a great investment for people in areas with lots of water. There is a seat belt cutter, as well as the hammer.

Marsha

 

[rie'smom]

Marsha, I bought a hammer for each driver in our family and an extra for the person in the back seat.

 

[torinsmom]

Marsha, I bought a hammer for each driver in our family and an extra for the person in the back seat.

Great idea to get an extra. Where are you putting it, under the seat? One of my biggest fears is ending up in a pond or lake while in the car.

Marsh

 

[rie'smom]

I keep the hammer in the front seat between the driver's seat and the console. The backseat hammer is kept in the pocket located on the back of the driver's seat.

 

[torinsmom]

I keep the hammer in the front seat between the driver's seat and the console. The backseat hammer is kept in the pocket located on the back of the driver's seat.

I keep the one I have in the center console. We don't have a pocket on the back of the front seats, so I will have to figure out somewhere back there. Hmmmm.......

Marsha

 

[dispor]

There was a horrible crash on the Ohio Turnpike this past week. The mother had her seatbelt on, but not the kids.

2 Detroit Kids Killed In Ohio Crash
Adults Were Wearing Seat Belts; The Children Were Not

POSTED: Wednesday, July 29, 2009
UPDATED: 5:57 pm EDT July 29, 2009

AMHERST, Ohio -- Two children from Detroit have been killed and four people injured in a pre-dawn accident along the Ohio Turnpike west of Cleveland.

Slideshow:Mich. Children Die In Ohio Crash
Watch: Children From Detroit Die In Ohio Crash

The State Highway Patrol said an eastbound vehicle was sideswiped around 2:30 a.m. and both vehicles ran off the road early Wednesday near Amherst.

The victims were children of one driver and were identified as 5-year-old Jamel El-Amin and 10-year-old Alexia Patrick, both of Detroit.

Troopers said their mother Setita Patrick, 29, their 5-month-old brother, another passenger in their vehicle, Jerome Thomas, 37, were all injured and taken to Cleveland Metro Hospital.

The driver of the other vehicle was also injured and transported to an area hospital.

Police said Patrick swerved the minivan to the left and struck a PT Cruiser driven by Jose Arzuaga, 58.

Both vehicles slid off the freeway and struck a concrete median divider.

The minivan rolled over and the children were thrown from the car. The two youngsters who died landed in the westbound lanes of the road and then one was hit by a semi, police said.

Police said the mom and the adult passenger inside the vehicle had their seatbelts on but the kids did not.