Pickup Owners: Do you buckle up?

FatTire · Apr 22, 2016

If I remember correctly, the idea of adding airbags and other "passive restraint" systems in vehicles was a response to people not wearing seat belts. This goes back to the 1970's, and later morphed into the "SRS" system (supplemental restraint) where airbags were intended to be used with seatbelts, instead of just protecting people who didn't wear them. In a modern vehicle, how much of the sticker price is attributed to airbags? Must be substantial.

silvertramp · Apr 22, 2016

Here in MA a seat belt violation is a secondary offence. You have to be stopped for something else before you can be fined. My mother was a very determined woman who tried for decades to get me to buckle up when I left her house. One day she won, and I've worn a belt ever since. I also wear DOT helmets on my motorcycles. Half helmets but DOT. I don't buckle up on my tractor.

Copperhead · Apr 22, 2016

One of those areas where I could really give a rip what others do. There are so many things that nannies want to control people that it is getting hard to even waste time worrying about it. I never tell anyone to buckle up, nor dissuade them from doing so.

jerrybob · Apr 22, 2016

I always buckle up in my truck or car.......just seems so much safer when I am texting and drinking a beer.:thumbsup:

oldpilgrim · Apr 23, 2016

Copperhead said:
One of those areas where I could really give a rip what others do. There are so many things that nannies want to control people that it is getting hard to even waste time worrying about it. I never tell anyone to buckle up, nor dissuade them from doing so.

My VA doctor asked me if I used my seat belts. I asked her if she ran with scissors in her hand and told her both her question and mine were completely irrelevant to why we were both there, for my annual physical. I asked her if she was required by the VA to ask her patients and she said no. After that visit we had a really great relationship. One of my favorite Drs. until she retired.

bdog · Apr 23, 2016

I too hat the nanny state and government intrusion but as long as our government is caring for people who injure themselves and don't have insurance I am ok with the seatbelt laws. Same thing with helmets on motorcycles. What often happens is people get seriously injured because of no seatbelt or helmet and then we as taxpayers get to foot the bill for their care. Or even if they have insurance we insurance payers suffer with higher premiums for their care. Take smokers for example. That is a health risk so they pay higher insurance premiums. Hard to implement something like that for seatbelt wearing but people that don't wear seat belts should pay higher insurance than those that do.

ultrarunner · Apr 23, 2016

I guess it is the same as those in extreme sports... white water kayaking, mountain climbing, bungee jumping, skydiving, competition time trials... etc.

Btown · Apr 23, 2016

FatTire said:
If I remember correctly, the idea of adding airbags and other "passive restraint" systems in vehicles was a response to people not wearing seat belts. This goes back to the 1970's, and later morphed into the "SRS" system (supplemental restraint) where airbags were intended to be used with seatbelts, instead of just protecting people who didn't wear them. In a modern vehicle, how much of the sticker price is attributed to airbags? Must be substantial.

Airbags do not work to well when you don't wear seat belts. They might help a very little, but your body will go over them, when you are flying around the vehicle, or out the windows. Everyone knows someone who's uncles, third cousins son was in a accident that they were not wearing their seatbelt and they jumped or flew out of the seat and that area was crushed. For every one of these stories there are thousands who are killed by ejection from vehicles.

Copperhead · Apr 24, 2016

And therein lies the problem. As long as we have a welfare state that provides for those that do stupid things, we can expect a government that will dictate how we do things, what we eat, etc. Kinda hard to justify the smokers analogy. Those folks pay dearly in taxes for every pack they buy. By the time they do develop a problem, if they do, they have just about paid enough in to cover the medical costs. But that is a ruse also. I watched when the states lined up for compensation from the cigarette makers to cover supposed medical costs due to smoking. That money was blown almost as fast as it came in on shoring up pension plans, studies to determine why monkeys have crap fights at the zoo, just about anything they could dream up. Iowa claimed it was to provide medical care to children. Almost immediately, they were clamoring for a tax hike because they had blown the money on nonsense. Yet again that the idea that government cares for the citizens is a drug induced dream.

Creamer · Apr 24, 2016

There is certainly a risk level that we are all willing to take. If the car is safer due to seat belts, airbags, crunch zones, etc. we may drive more dangerously to meet some of our other needs.

The Hidden Danger of Seat Belts - TIME

GManBart · Apr 25, 2016

I would just ask that if you don't buckle up, consider willing me your tractors....just in case

Btown · Apr 25, 2016

Creamer said:
There is certainly a risk level that we are all willing to take. If the car is safer due to seat belts, airbags, crunch zones, etc. we may drive more dangerously to meet some of our other needs. The Hidden Danger of Seat Belts - TIME

That article has little to no statistics on death rates of people using seat belts. It just rambles on about who knows what, a teenager on a date. It basically says death rates didn't change in accidents. So if you have a car load of kids driving like young stupid kid and one is wearing a seat belt, the other 5 are not. It crashes and 3 die that were not buckled. That article says basically hey the seat belt law is in effect but people are still getting killed. No kidding people who are not buckled. Here is an article with stats. Seat Belt Statistics This shows that people not wearing seat belts made up 21.3% in accidents but were 48.1% of the fatalities. That is 2.25 times more likely to die not using a seat belt or 225% more likely to die.

Creamer · Apr 25, 2016

I'll agree that the time article is not the best but the phenomena it describes is very real. We all have an acceptable level of risk that we will take for the various activities we do so if you lower risk in one area we will compensate in another.

Buggs67 · May 8, 2016

jerrybob said:
I always buckle up in my truck or car.......just seems so much safer when I am texting and drinking a beer.:thumbsup:

You shouldn't drink and drive!! You might spill your drink ! 'specially a martini

dragoneggs · May 9, 2016

Buggs67 said:
You shouldn't drink and drive!! You might spill your drink ! 'specially a martini

... and ruin your phone! And why do they use those easy to spill conical glassware on the finest of cocktails that your are sure to dribble.

Copperhead · May 10, 2016

None of this has swayed me one way or the other to buckle up or not. The gooberment can publish all the studies it wants, but these are the same folks with an agenda, and they use the same mindset methodology that air and water are worse than they were 50 years ago and something has to be done, when anyone who was in reality back then knows that air and water pollution today is hardly a blip on the radar compared to the 60's and 70's. Seat belts are indeed a good thing. But the gooberment agenda is not about safety for safety's sake, it is about revenue collection for not toeing the line of their agenda. If gooberment agenda was about safety, we would not see cigarettes for sale, we would see universal helmet laws, etc. This seatbelt issue is as all the others..... it is about control, money, or both. I will buckle up when appropriate, I will let the belt hang by the door when I am driving my pickup when it is not. I am not going to fasten and unfasten a seat belt a hundred times to check a fence line or crop land. I am not going to use the seatbelt when I operate my UTV, primarily because I don't use it as a play toy to crawl trails and hillsides. There wasn't even a seat belt in the M151A2 MUTT I used in the Army and it was nothing more than a large UTV by todays standards.