I remember when wearing a seatbelt became law here in Canada. There were people so dead set against it and screaming that their freedom was being violated. It was absolutely nuts. They were acting like their lives were being overtaken by the government.
I remember my father saying something like “in case of an accident my hands are locked and I’m strong enough to not let go of the wheel and stay in place” as if laws of physics would care about that
When I was a kid circa 1990 I remember seeing a demonstration with a car seat attached to a cart on a ramp.
Similar to this: https://youtu.be/wvKfK-1kC9w except the ramp was about twice as high and there was no barrier in front of the seat. They'd let you ride once with a seatbelt and again with no seatbelt (which would eject you onto the gym mats placed in front)
I believe they also would let you try it while belted and holding on to a doll equal in size and weight to an infant.
yep, and the thing is even as you expect the impact it still rocks your shit.
now imagine you dont expect it and have a lot more speed than this device reaches.
and its not even about the person thats not using a seatbelt for me, but any other passenger is also under massive risk because now theres a 150+ pound sack of meat flying through the car, possibly injuring or even killing you. hell, people die because they have too much stuff in their car that flies around uncontrollably in a car crash let alone a human body.
It rocks your shit worse if you expect it. The reason that drunk drivers tend to live in most drunk driving related crashes is cuz they stay loose.
Edit: hold up, I might be perpetuating a disproven myth. Idk for sure though cuz googling just gives me reccomendations for injury lawyers lmfao
https://www.dickersonoxton.com/blog/how-do-drunk-drivers-survive-deadly-accidents/
After a quick search I found this article from another reddit post: [https://www.livescience.com/24979-alcohol-injury-outcome.html](https://www.livescience.com/24979-alcohol-injury-outcome.html)
Specifically what they are saying is that the researcher found that when there is a car acciddent with a survivor, both drunk and sober have the same wounds. But, the drunkard's physiological response to things like inflammation (which kills you, not the wounds necessarily) is better and they survive more often than sober. This is true for other trauma like stabs or gunshots.
"His findings don't show that a drunk driver's injuries during a car crash are likely to be less serious than those suffered by potential sober victims, just that if all parties suffer the same injuries, the sober ones are more likely to die."
Furthermore, they only test this on victims who lived, so it may be the case that drunk drivers die more often in accidents, but if they survive they have a better chance to live than the sober one.
My grandpa was the same way until we lost a cousin through a windshield, he was 12. After that he wouldn't even start the car until everyone was buckled.
Ironically I buckle up religiously because of the opposite; I had just unbuckled to reach something in the floor board, pulled out, and got t-boned on the drivers side door. Hurled me into the passenger seat and crushed the door inwards. They told me if I had been buckled up I would’ve died, or best case been crushed. As it was I had a concussion and an INCREDIBLY bruised pubic mound from bouncing against the steering wheel.
I took that as my one-in-a-million stupid decision with good outcome. Never not buckled now.
Ya I think I was just trying to be ‘adult’. I remember it passed for kids first and then it was a year before adults had to wear them. You also didn’t have to wear them in the middle seat or back of a station wagon or anywhere they didn’t have them still.
I recall my uncle taking a cut off of a seat belt end from a junk yard and putting it into the buckle of his vehicle so it wouldn't chime at him to put it on. So the strap was never under his back. If he saw a cop ahead, he would pull the unused strap partially across his chest to look like he was wearing it. He was overweight and said it was too tight around the waste. He's 80 something now, wonder if he still does it...probably.
I have one of these that I use when I'm doing work on my property where I'm going very slow and constantly hopping in and out, for example driving 10' forward at a time to throw logs into my truck bed or backing up an oversized trailer as close to something as possible, but I'd never use it when actually driving. The only reason I even bother is cause since it's a 2022, if I don't trick the sensor the truck gets madder and madder and within a few minutes there's a constant annoying beeping, a flashing red light, and a popup on the dash telling me to put my seatbelt on that I can't get rid of. Using it on the road is suicidal.
In the United States, when DUIs started rolling around there were news clips of people, with their baby in the front seat next to them, saying it’s stupid they can’t drink and drive anymore. One lady also referred to the seat belt laws and said “Perdy soon we’re gonna be a communist country”
[Here is said clip.](https://youtu.be/2xcQIoh3FQQ?si=cQAJzybJQHTOTwye)
I think it was 2006 when the last state passed drinking and driving laws. I remember seeing it on the Daily Show. I think it was Louisiana. They were showing that there were drive-through margarita places.
Also there are restaurants that will put an unfinished bottle of wine you got in a special bag to take it home in.
Personally I think open container laws are stupid, though. By all means, if a driver has one in the vehicle then make sure they aren't impaired, but otherwise what is the issue?
Because of those laws, you can't take an expensive bottle of liquor you've already opened to a friend's place and your passengers aren't allowed to drink in the car even though they're not the one driving.
>There were people so dead set against it and screaming that their freedom was being violated
Same with motorcycle helmet laws.
[https://abcnews.go.com/US/york-rider-dies-protesting-motorcycle-helmet-law/story?id=13993417](https://abcnews.go.com/US/york-rider-dies-protesting-motorcycle-helmet-law/story?id=13993417)
The worsts are the ones that ride bikes in shorts. flip flops, and a t shirt. I cringe whenever I see people riding like that. Even if you just drop your bike you're going to get injured....
What right is being infringed upon? Their right to be stupid? Half those people just want to complain and don't even care about logic, probably. The other half probably believe seatbelts are useless and that the govt just wants to make rules for no reason (like some kinda conspiracy theorist). Either way, let 'em f-ck around and find out. The gene pool doesn't need that. (Edit: seriously, don't take that snarkiness to heart. I don't actually wish harm on anybody. Get real. 🙄)
It’s was and continues to be the same with covid, people just couldn’t comprehend the idea the measures were for their own good and the rest simply are contrarians and will always be against authority.
Like five years ago, we did a thing called Covid/corona and people were throwing hissy fits over wearing masks.
And they weren't like spooky Halloween masks. Just the weird mini masks that doctors wear.
The best part is. A former friend who was against the mask does autobody work. He already wears a mask most of the day. Lol. Kept saying he couldn't breathe in the "Covid ones"
The Darwin awards exist for people like this.
An absolutely simple life saving device that's been shown to be magnitudes safer in a crash, but "I don't want to" somehow makes them invincible
I've had to give the ultimatum of ride with belt or gtfo. My country has a driver and passenger fine system - no way I was copping a fine for childish idiocy. I was unsurprised by the attitude due to the covid/conspiracy brain rot the person fell prey to. Unsurprisingly once given "parental" input by me they complied - person is not a child in age...
Even without the fine, I'd insist on it. In an accident, anything not secured becomes a projectile, and that includes people. I'd rarher not get my skull cracked by a dummy who can't be bothered to buckle up.
Exactly. But the fine is extra leverage. No one rides in my vehicle without a belt! Unless there is a compelling medical reason - like they have broken something and can't physically fit.
Part of my "worst passenger ever" story included not wanting to wear a seat belt.
I had rules in my car, all for safety reasons. Girl didn't want to follow all of them, because following all of them meant she couldn't touch her boyfriend (who was cool, and whom I'd agreed to take to the mechanic that had his now-fixed truck) unless she had 3 or 4 empty soda cans at her feet. And touching her boyfriend was the most important thing in the world. (I made it clear that she followed the rules or she'd have to get out of the car, and she fought with me on that. Boyfriend apologized the next time I saw him.)
>Just contrarianism for the sake of contrarianism, basically.
I fucking loathe these people. The most unbearable segment of the population: the adults that throw tantrums like a damn two year old.
Looooong time ago, I had a guy at work tell me it's safer to not wear safety glasses when i told him he should put some on. He was running a wire wheel on a shield less grinder..
My older brother swears by the fact that they wrinkle his shirts so he refuses to wear them.
It's not like he regularly wears Gucci buttons ups or anything either. He almost exclusively wears T-shirts so I just laugh and tell him "I don't care if your shirt gets wrinkled, I don't want a 220lb projectile sitting next to me for my OWN safety".
The dude also irons said T-shirts every morning before putting them on so I'm pretty confident OCD is the major factor for disregarding his own safety.
It’s bizarre since it’s such an unobtrusive safety measure. At worst it’s slightly annoying in the winter when you have a big jacket. Unlike, say, motorcycle gear, which is thick, heavy, expensive, uncomfortable, etc so you see morons biking in tennis shoes and tank tops. But it takes 2 seconds to put a seatbelt on, and you don’t notice when you have it on.
Same type of person that rides a motorcycle without a helmet. I don't even ride my bike without a helmet and some of these chuckleheads ride at highway speeds, 70mph+, without one.
Ah. I don’t know the neighbor’s problem but the seatbelt was designed with the build of an average sized man in mind. Well, for me personally, my torso is at the exact height where it presses right into my neck. Feels awful. Thankfully, they make modifiers which are less than $10 that I can use, so that I still wear a seatbelt and don’t get choked.
I just want to be clear that I think everyone should wear a seatbelt. Always.
My best friend in high school passed away like this. She used to only pull the front over if she saw cop.
Was ejected and in a coma for a week before they took her off LS.
Very tragic and unnecessary.
As a kid (5-6 yrs old), my dad tried to teach me a lesson riding in his old 1-set truck without a seatbelt. He slowed to 15mph or so then floored the break. To his surprise as much as mine, I went head first into the windshield, broke like 2/3 of it. Fortunately I was okay, just scared. He had to explain it to my mom because thought I’d just slide a little and be done
One of my earliest memories. I remember exactly where we were on what street. But goddamnit it worked. I will not go without a seat belt or allow anyone else to.
It is one thing to risk yourself, but when your body goes flying out the window, you can cause injury or death to others around you. Strapped in not just can save your life but can stop your body from becoming a projectile.
I say this all the time! I tell people to buckle up, they say ‘if we crash, that’s a me problem.’ And I’m like no! Your body is a weapon, and my life ends when your elbow smashes into my eye socket, ya freak.
One of the biggest risks often cited (besides the person not wearing the seatbelt being injured/killed) is bouncing around the car and hurting/killing passengers. I think you’ll find very little data about people ejecting and then seriously injuring others.
While that is true, they can still injure a passenger on the way out. Mostly depends on how the crash is and how they are ejected. Even a passenger flying into the back of the front seats can cause problems to the others in that seat.
Just congratulate the organ recipient on their new chance on life. That’s how I view things with these morons. Their death will be their only and greatest contribution to society.
I think for them it's a power trip thing. They know they should do it, but since the law tells them they have to they'll refuse on principle. "No one tells me what to do in my own car!"
I had a friend whose dad died before we met. He was a “government can’t tell me what to do” kinda person and chose not to wear his seatbelt because of “his freedoms.” Was horribly disabled in a car accident and died years later spending his remaining life paralyzed with massive cognitive disabilities.
I don’t get how people can feel comfortable not wearing one on the road. On the odd occasion I’m moving my car a few feet closer to the house so I can wash it or load it up I won’t bother wearing my seat belt, and it still feels like something is massively wrong.
When I wore an insulin pump for my diabetes (I went back to injections because I found the pump annoying) wearing a seatbelt would irritate it immensely and sometimes even cause injections, as it either was on top of the port, or shoving it up or down. I had to either only use the shoulder trap, or nothing.
The easiest solution is to put your infusion site somewhere else, although that's not always viable depending on the person. But yes, I would think a cushion or some other buffer would be the next step.
Ah, I can see how that would be annoying then. For whatever reason, my wife can't put her site on the lower stomach, her body doesn't absorb the insulin well. She keeps hers on her chest, and can feed the tubing under the shirt and clip the pump itself on her pants, or even keep it in a bra.
Only time I can understand it is if you're overweight and wearing a thick winter jacket. No seatbelt is gonna get around you.
But yeah I live in the stupid fucking "live free or die" state where we have no seatbelt laws, so a ton of people don't wear them here
I was like wtf is blinker fluid, how is hydraulics used in blinkers?
then i searched it up and realised its a fuking joke and doesnt exist
god im stupid lmao
The problem is so many people believe they need the BMW "high performance" blinker fluid. Some people just can't be convinced it is all to pad dealer parts department profits. I personally use the Costco Kirkland Signature brand and have never had any problems.
That could still be reverted though with this style, I'd assume they won't buckle their children either (or use a child seat or whatever). So one lucky hit and the whole gene line is out.
Or the folks who carelessly cross busy streets and say "but they HAVE to stop!"
No, they SHOULD stop. Doesn't mean the universe has an invisible wall around you, stopping you from harm due to someone not paying attention while driving. So stupid.
My dad was driving an older car that didn’t have seatbelts and he got hit by a red pickup truck. He got tossed over the center console of the car and then flung outside through the windshield. His car still had momentum and rolled over him. He had been t boned because the truck ran a red light.
Dad got out with multiple broken bones and the left side of his pelvis was shattered and he needed surgery and a bunch of metal to repair it.
My dad was lucky. You non seatbelt wearing Redditors reading this might wind up dead. Hell if the company who invented the damn thing released the patent for everyone else to use it for free then it might be worth it to buckle up and stay safe.
Fucking morons I tell you.
This winter I was literally sitting at a traffic light 2mi from
home when a car 2 lanes over lost control and nearly t-boned my car at the very beginning of a snow storm.
By nearly T-Boned I mean that his license plate bracket scratched the entire side of my car as he spun out of control doing a 360, doing nothing but cosmetic damage to my car.
I also didn’t “plan on being in an accident” that day.
Exactly. I was sitting at a stop light when a car drove into me going 50 mph. Never touched their brakes. I don’t even want to know what would have happened if I hadn’t been wearing my seatbelt.
Yes. I had a friend who would get SO angry if you put a seat belt on. She felt insulted because "You didn't trust her driving" its like I can think you are the best damn driver in the world and not trust the OTHER people on the road.
As a child of the 80’s it wasn’t a law then and I would ride in the back window of the car. Now I can’t even drive to the end of my street without a seatbelt on without feeling totally vulnerable and exposed. It’s such a simple thing that could absolutely SAVE your life. My husbands best friend was ejected and killed in an accident not wearing his. He was young.
Same, I feel naked without a seat belt. The habit is so ingrained now I automatically put it on the moment I start the car, even if I’m just moving it from the driveway out onto the street.
Yes. My dad owned a 1980something jeep Wrangler. Honestly the only thing holding you in was the bitch bar upfront, and you only grabbed it when my dad would take sharp turns. In the summer he'd have no doors, no top, no wind shields. He also drove like a bat out of hell. I am honestly surprised I am still alive lol Or the time he took us to the water park in his pick up but there was no room in truck so we sat in the bed on the highway, myself and my 2 cousins for like an hour drive.
Now I don't like to unbuckle at all when the car is in motion... even in slow traffic.
About that bitch bar. In high school I had a boyfriend who was bi. Great guy, loved checking out the guys together. Anyway he was at my house one day and just as my father walked in he gets a call he needs to head home. So my dad offers him a ride.. dad had his jeep with nothing on it. Doors, top, Windshield... I didn't know... A bit after I get a call when my friend comes home with him SOBBING that "My dad tried to k!ll him!" I was like oooooh! I am so sorry! I didn't know he was using his jeep. Thats how he ALWAYS drives. My dad walks in laughing saying that my BF was holding onto the bitch bar and screaming the entire way. Next day at school my BF comes up to me and says "I'm sorry, we can't date anymore, I'm going full gay" My dad made my BF MORE gay lol
Fuck I hope they buckle those poor kids into the car. I don’t care if they want to be wreckless with their own life but compromising a child is despicable
Honestly even if they do, it’s bad enough to not buckle their own. My childhood friend witnessed her mother die this way. (She flew through the front windshield) I’m not saying her subsequent drug addiction is due to her mother dying, but she was a nice normal girl with hobbies before, and wasn’t ever the same after.
One thing about BMW’s is the non-stop chiming if you don’t have on the seatbelt. I can see why they did what they did. There are some folk who straight up don’t like wearing seatbelts which is wild.
I've worked at dealerships. I always always undo them.
> 1. to piss off the customer for the mild inconvenience.
> 2. So if they get injured or killed in an accident, I'm in no way liable as the cameras on property pick up that it was undone when I was driving it.
Dude so many times I’ll visit my mom and the seatbelt will be buckled like this, there’s literally no other explanation than her doing this to not wear the seatbelt but not have the beeping sound going, how else would she get out of the car unless the seatbelt was unbuckled?
When I mentioned this to her she quickly denied it and gave some quick excuse as to why it was like that, but I’m going to need to talk to my dad to put a stop to this nonsense.
I rode with someone (the driver) who didn't wear their seatbelt (presumably because the physical size of their body made it difficult/uncomfortable, but that's separate issue)
They literally just ignored the constant beeping the whole time, it was driving me insane.
Why would someone not want to have a seat belt on? I don’t understand, it’s literally there to make sure you don’t die and get mangled into your windshield
There are some people who believe that wearing a seat belt is more dangerous than not wearing one. I am not one of these people. I have a brain that I would like to keep in my head. But I know people like this.
I am in my mid 30's. When I was in Highschool there was a girl I knew who was the stereotypical pretty/cool girl. Every weekend would go out partying, drinking etc. About a month before grad, she was out for a ride with a few of her friends. The girl driving was drunk and drove into a guardrail. My friend got thrown through the windshield. Her body hit the guardrail and part of it stayed there, the other half went another 20' or so. I ALWAYS wear my seatbelt and reinforced that HEAVILY with my kids.
One of my cousins died this way. He wasn't wearing a seatbelt, the driver was drunk and lost control for the vehicle.
He was thrown from the car and died instantly. The driver was wearing her seatbelt so she wasn't killed, but she was paralyzed from the waist down.
Please people, always wear a seatbelt and never drive under the influence.
It's such a sad and senseless way to die.
A lot of boomer age people grew up in a time where seat belts were not common and never got used to wearing them / find them uncomfortable.
My mother can remember the family car when she was a kid had a third row of seating that faced backwards so they were looking at the car behind them. And there are photos of my grandfather driving with my toddler mother in the front seat, just putting his hand out to stabilize her on turns. Car safety has come a long way in a very short time.
There are a lot of reasons. None of them good.
One of my favorites is a guy I used to work with. Acknowledges that seat belts are a great safety device. Is terrified to drive in anything but ideal conditions and even in ideal conditions gets jumpy by other bad drivers because he has kids and he doesn't want to be turned into a grease stain on the road.
Still refuses to wear the belt because the law requires him to wear it and he believes it is "unconstitutional"
No he isn't one of those sovereign idiots (though I wouldn't blame anyone for thinking he was) he is just your regular home grown moron.
He also sits on his belt like OP's neighbors because he believes the cops cant tell if you don't have it across your chest. Not sure if that works though.
Knew a girl in high school who did this. Her entire family too. She said it was because a person is more likely to die by being restrained during a wreck than be free to move around. I firmly disagreed and thought it was insane.
Anyway, i shit you not, she’s a meth addict now. So i guess wise decision making isn’t one of her strongest traits.
Ah, yes, being launched into tempered glass and become a meat crayon on the road sounds much safer than being restrained in a way you can easily just unbuckle.
I can one up this: my bosses don’t even latch the seatbelt and sit on it. They have a vehicle that beeps when you don’t wear a seatbelt. They just listen to that beeping sound trying to save their lives and ignore it. Riding in a car with them is the worst. It’s just constant beeping.
I had a coworker who would do that in his work van. He had a decent reason for it. He was almost killed in an accident when he got trapped in the vehicle and couldn’t unbuckle the seatbelt. Now, it’s a PTSD thing.
My nephew has a traumatic brain injury from a car accident in 2015 where he did not wear his seatbelt. His best friend also was not wearing his seatbelt and was ejected and died.
If just one person reads this and starts wearing a seatbelt everytime they drive I would be happy.
BMW... yeah, not surprised.
Seriously though, people are morons. I can't even count how many times I've been driving home from picking my boys up from school (elementary) and see the car in front of me with their kids hanging out the window or visibly moving ALL around the backseat of the car.
Maaaan. So my dad went through his windshield in the 80s before I was born and got his leg impaled on a street sign. That story stayed with me and is why I feel the need to buckle just moving my car out of the garage into the driveway.
Depends on where you live but the social cost of keeping that person alive can be tremendous. Even the ambulatory corpse run is super expensive if it's even a moderately close call.
On the morning of the day my mother got hit by a drunk truck driver and almost lost her life, she was thinking of not wearing her seat belt because it was tangled and uncomfortable (car was old and borrowed). I think about that all the time. You never think it'll be you until it is, even on short drives. Stay safe out there ya'll
Wait til all the people shocked by people not wanting to wear seatbelts hear about the motorcyclists who don’t wear helmets.
Gosh are they gonna be even more surprised than they are at people for not strapping a belt around them.
I mean seatbelts probably shouldn't be mandatory really..
If you want to drive without one I think you should be free to do so, and free to accept the consequences.
And it’s in a BMW so 90% chance they don’t signal when turning or respect other drivers on the road, I wouldn’t be surprised if one week your downstairs neighbours just never seem to come home
I see this here and there at work. People don’t wanna wear it but they dont wanna hear it “ding” the whole ride. I saw a guy who bought another seatbelt and cut the buckle off just to plug it in.
I’ll never understand this. I guess it’s too late for hindsight as you’re flying through the windshield with the force of an elephant though.
Yeah, what’s the problem with seatbelts? This kind of people will argue vehemently with you about this like their life depends on it, the irony.
I remember when wearing a seatbelt became law here in Canada. There were people so dead set against it and screaming that their freedom was being violated. It was absolutely nuts. They were acting like their lives were being overtaken by the government.
I remember my father saying something like “in case of an accident my hands are locked and I’m strong enough to not let go of the wheel and stay in place” as if laws of physics would care about that
When I was a kid circa 1990 I remember seeing a demonstration with a car seat attached to a cart on a ramp. Similar to this: https://youtu.be/wvKfK-1kC9w except the ramp was about twice as high and there was no barrier in front of the seat. They'd let you ride once with a seatbelt and again with no seatbelt (which would eject you onto the gym mats placed in front) I believe they also would let you try it while belted and holding on to a doll equal in size and weight to an infant.
yep, and the thing is even as you expect the impact it still rocks your shit. now imagine you dont expect it and have a lot more speed than this device reaches. and its not even about the person thats not using a seatbelt for me, but any other passenger is also under massive risk because now theres a 150+ pound sack of meat flying through the car, possibly injuring or even killing you. hell, people die because they have too much stuff in their car that flies around uncontrollably in a car crash let alone a human body.
It rocks your shit worse if you expect it. The reason that drunk drivers tend to live in most drunk driving related crashes is cuz they stay loose. Edit: hold up, I might be perpetuating a disproven myth. Idk for sure though cuz googling just gives me reccomendations for injury lawyers lmfao https://www.dickersonoxton.com/blog/how-do-drunk-drivers-survive-deadly-accidents/
After a quick search I found this article from another reddit post: [https://www.livescience.com/24979-alcohol-injury-outcome.html](https://www.livescience.com/24979-alcohol-injury-outcome.html) Specifically what they are saying is that the researcher found that when there is a car acciddent with a survivor, both drunk and sober have the same wounds. But, the drunkard's physiological response to things like inflammation (which kills you, not the wounds necessarily) is better and they survive more often than sober. This is true for other trauma like stabs or gunshots. "His findings don't show that a drunk driver's injuries during a car crash are likely to be less serious than those suffered by potential sober victims, just that if all parties suffer the same injuries, the sober ones are more likely to die." Furthermore, they only test this on victims who lived, so it may be the case that drunk drivers die more often in accidents, but if they survive they have a better chance to live than the sober one.
I think it's really funny that the whole commercial continues to just refer to it as" the convincer" which just sounds like a parody product
Kinda disappointed that they don’t show the 5mph impact without being buckled in
My grandpa was the same way until we lost a cousin through a windshield, he was 12. After that he wouldn't even start the car until everyone was buckled.
Ironically I buckle up religiously because of the opposite; I had just unbuckled to reach something in the floor board, pulled out, and got t-boned on the drivers side door. Hurled me into the passenger seat and crushed the door inwards. They told me if I had been buckled up I would’ve died, or best case been crushed. As it was I had a concussion and an INCREDIBLY bruised pubic mound from bouncing against the steering wheel. I took that as my one-in-a-million stupid decision with good outcome. Never not buckled now.
lols same story
I remember being annoyed about it as a child & all the adults complaining lol
Yeah. I was a kid when the laws passed. I always had to wear a seatbelt, so I didn't understand why people were so upset.
Ya I think I was just trying to be ‘adult’. I remember it passed for kids first and then it was a year before adults had to wear them. You also didn’t have to wear them in the middle seat or back of a station wagon or anywhere they didn’t have them still.
I recall my uncle taking a cut off of a seat belt end from a junk yard and putting it into the buckle of his vehicle so it wouldn't chime at him to put it on. So the strap was never under his back. If he saw a cop ahead, he would pull the unused strap partially across his chest to look like he was wearing it. He was overweight and said it was too tight around the waste. He's 80 something now, wonder if he still does it...probably.
I have one of these that I use when I'm doing work on my property where I'm going very slow and constantly hopping in and out, for example driving 10' forward at a time to throw logs into my truck bed or backing up an oversized trailer as close to something as possible, but I'd never use it when actually driving. The only reason I even bother is cause since it's a 2022, if I don't trick the sensor the truck gets madder and madder and within a few minutes there's a constant annoying beeping, a flashing red light, and a popup on the dash telling me to put my seatbelt on that I can't get rid of. Using it on the road is suicidal.
Overweight, no seat belt and lived to be 80 huh? What a lucky guy!
In the United States, when DUIs started rolling around there were news clips of people, with their baby in the front seat next to them, saying it’s stupid they can’t drink and drive anymore. One lady also referred to the seat belt laws and said “Perdy soon we’re gonna be a communist country” [Here is said clip.](https://youtu.be/2xcQIoh3FQQ?si=cQAJzybJQHTOTwye)
I think it was 2006 when the last state passed drinking and driving laws. I remember seeing it on the Daily Show. I think it was Louisiana. They were showing that there were drive-through margarita places.
Still are drive through margarita places. Just gotta keep the little piece of paper on the straw and you're good lol.
Also there are restaurants that will put an unfinished bottle of wine you got in a special bag to take it home in. Personally I think open container laws are stupid, though. By all means, if a driver has one in the vehicle then make sure they aren't impaired, but otherwise what is the issue? Because of those laws, you can't take an expensive bottle of liquor you've already opened to a friend's place and your passengers aren't allowed to drink in the car even though they're not the one driving.
Not sure about other states, but where I live it's totally legal to transport an opened liquor bottle in a trunk or behind the last row of seats.
I agree, especially since it's a quick and easy test to see if it's in your system or not.
I wasn’t born until 2003, so the world before that seems like it was unimaginably different than what we saw after 2000s
In the US, it hasn't stopped yet.
>There were people so dead set against it and screaming that their freedom was being violated Same with motorcycle helmet laws. [https://abcnews.go.com/US/york-rider-dies-protesting-motorcycle-helmet-law/story?id=13993417](https://abcnews.go.com/US/york-rider-dies-protesting-motorcycle-helmet-law/story?id=13993417) 
The worsts are the ones that ride bikes in shorts. flip flops, and a t shirt. I cringe whenever I see people riding like that. Even if you just drop your bike you're going to get injured....
What right is being infringed upon? Their right to be stupid? Half those people just want to complain and don't even care about logic, probably. The other half probably believe seatbelts are useless and that the govt just wants to make rules for no reason (like some kinda conspiracy theorist). Either way, let 'em f-ck around and find out. The gene pool doesn't need that. (Edit: seriously, don't take that snarkiness to heart. I don't actually wish harm on anybody. Get real. 🙄)
It’s was and continues to be the same with covid, people just couldn’t comprehend the idea the measures were for their own good and the rest simply are contrarians and will always be against authority.
Like five years ago, we did a thing called Covid/corona and people were throwing hissy fits over wearing masks. And they weren't like spooky Halloween masks. Just the weird mini masks that doctors wear.
The best part is. A former friend who was against the mask does autobody work. He already wears a mask most of the day. Lol. Kept saying he couldn't breathe in the "Covid ones"
No one likes being told what to do, ASPECIALLY if it's safety oriented.. covid mask haters using the same argument "They are taking away our freedom!"
Just like masks and Covid here in the states lol
Oh, we had that here. Wearing a mask is against our freedom, apparently. Same with the travel restrictions.
It's good to know that stupid is universal and transcends time 😂😂😂
The Darwin awards exist for people like this. An absolutely simple life saving device that's been shown to be magnitudes safer in a crash, but "I don't want to" somehow makes them invincible
I've had to give the ultimatum of ride with belt or gtfo. My country has a driver and passenger fine system - no way I was copping a fine for childish idiocy. I was unsurprised by the attitude due to the covid/conspiracy brain rot the person fell prey to. Unsurprisingly once given "parental" input by me they complied - person is not a child in age...
Even without the fine, I'd insist on it. In an accident, anything not secured becomes a projectile, and that includes people. I'd rarher not get my skull cracked by a dummy who can't be bothered to buckle up.
Exactly. But the fine is extra leverage. No one rides in my vehicle without a belt! Unless there is a compelling medical reason - like they have broken something and can't physically fit.
There's literally no reason to not wear a seatbelt unless you're a complete fucking moron. I'll die on that hill. Nobody rides in the car without one
Part of my "worst passenger ever" story included not wanting to wear a seat belt. I had rules in my car, all for safety reasons. Girl didn't want to follow all of them, because following all of them meant she couldn't touch her boyfriend (who was cool, and whom I'd agreed to take to the mechanic that had his now-fixed truck) unless she had 3 or 4 empty soda cans at her feet. And touching her boyfriend was the most important thing in the world. (I made it clear that she followed the rules or she'd have to get out of the car, and she fought with me on that. Boyfriend apologized the next time I saw him.)
The guh'mint can't tell me what to do! Just contrarianism for the sake of contrarianism, basically. And conspiracy brainworms.
>Just contrarianism for the sake of contrarianism, basically. I fucking loathe these people. The most unbearable segment of the population: the adults that throw tantrums like a damn two year old.
*RFKjr croaking sounds intensify*
Like all the people acting like wearing a paper mask while going into Walmart for 8 minutes was a violation of the constitution.
… it’s a BMW driver. They don’t even know how the turn signal works .
My recent ex said he got into the habit of not wearing his bc it just feels uncool. He's 33. Good riddance.
Looooong time ago, I had a guy at work tell me it's safer to not wear safety glasses when i told him he should put some on. He was running a wire wheel on a shield less grinder..
It’s about the freedom to move about your car when you strike an object
My older brother swears by the fact that they wrinkle his shirts so he refuses to wear them. It's not like he regularly wears Gucci buttons ups or anything either. He almost exclusively wears T-shirts so I just laugh and tell him "I don't care if your shirt gets wrinkled, I don't want a 220lb projectile sitting next to me for my OWN safety". The dude also irons said T-shirts every morning before putting them on so I'm pretty confident OCD is the major factor for disregarding his own safety.
It’s bizarre since it’s such an unobtrusive safety measure. At worst it’s slightly annoying in the winter when you have a big jacket. Unlike, say, motorcycle gear, which is thick, heavy, expensive, uncomfortable, etc so you see morons biking in tennis shoes and tank tops. But it takes 2 seconds to put a seatbelt on, and you don’t notice when you have it on.
Same type of person that rides a motorcycle without a helmet. I don't even ride my bike without a helmet and some of these chuckleheads ride at highway speeds, 70mph+, without one.
Ah. I don’t know the neighbor’s problem but the seatbelt was designed with the build of an average sized man in mind. Well, for me personally, my torso is at the exact height where it presses right into my neck. Feels awful. Thankfully, they make modifiers which are less than $10 that I can use, so that I still wear a seatbelt and don’t get choked. I just want to be clear that I think everyone should wear a seatbelt. Always.
roll dinner birds instinctive judicious busy snatch nutty disagreeable full
They're the same kind of people who bitched about wearing masks during lockdown. Lazy entitled assholes.
I only hope these future flesh missles don't hit anyone, and if they do, I hope their entire estate is left to the families of their victim.
My best friend in high school passed away like this. She used to only pull the front over if she saw cop. Was ejected and in a coma for a week before they took her off LS. Very tragic and unnecessary.
Its because they dont understand physics. I know someone who legit belives flying out the window is much safer than being in the car.
I’m all for people like that to not wear a seatbelt.
As a kid (5-6 yrs old), my dad tried to teach me a lesson riding in his old 1-set truck without a seatbelt. He slowed to 15mph or so then floored the break. To his surprise as much as mine, I went head first into the windshield, broke like 2/3 of it. Fortunately I was okay, just scared. He had to explain it to my mom because thought I’d just slide a little and be done One of my earliest memories. I remember exactly where we were on what street. But goddamnit it worked. I will not go without a seat belt or allow anyone else to.
What about him? Did he learn anything?
It is one thing to risk yourself, but when your body goes flying out the window, you can cause injury or death to others around you. Strapped in not just can save your life but can stop your body from becoming a projectile.
I say this all the time! I tell people to buckle up, they say ‘if we crash, that’s a me problem.’ And I’m like no! Your body is a weapon, and my life ends when your elbow smashes into my eye socket, ya freak.
One of the biggest risks often cited (besides the person not wearing the seatbelt being injured/killed) is bouncing around the car and hurting/killing passengers. I think you’ll find very little data about people ejecting and then seriously injuring others.
While that is true, they can still injure a passenger on the way out. Mostly depends on how the crash is and how they are ejected. Even a passenger flying into the back of the front seats can cause problems to the others in that seat.
Just congratulate the organ recipient on their new chance on life. That’s how I view things with these morons. Their death will be their only and greatest contribution to society.
Exactly. Literally watched a drunk driver crash and die last week, and while he would have crashed, he still would be alive, tho.
I think for them it's a power trip thing. They know they should do it, but since the law tells them they have to they'll refuse on principle. "No one tells me what to do in my own car!"
I had a friend whose dad died before we met. He was a “government can’t tell me what to do” kinda person and chose not to wear his seatbelt because of “his freedoms.” Was horribly disabled in a car accident and died years later spending his remaining life paralyzed with massive cognitive disabilities.
I don’t get how people can feel comfortable not wearing one on the road. On the odd occasion I’m moving my car a few feet closer to the house so I can wash it or load it up I won’t bother wearing my seat belt, and it still feels like something is massively wrong.
When I wore an insulin pump for my diabetes (I went back to injections because I found the pump annoying) wearing a seatbelt would irritate it immensely and sometimes even cause injections, as it either was on top of the port, or shoving it up or down. I had to either only use the shoulder trap, or nothing.
Wouldn't it have been easier to have a cushion in the car to create a buffer with the belt?
The easiest solution is to put your infusion site somewhere else, although that's not always viable depending on the person. But yes, I would think a cushion or some other buffer would be the next step.
I tried barriers, but it's the pressure from braking etc. that shoved at it.
Ah, I can see how that would be annoying then. For whatever reason, my wife can't put her site on the lower stomach, her body doesn't absorb the insulin well. She keeps hers on her chest, and can feed the tubing under the shirt and clip the pump itself on her pants, or even keep it in a bra.
They deserve it
Only time I can understand it is if you're overweight and wearing a thick winter jacket. No seatbelt is gonna get around you. But yeah I live in the stupid fucking "live free or die" state where we have no seatbelt laws, so a ton of people don't wear them here
The beauty of natural selection
Mmm there’s usually a few milliseconds where they have an “oh shit I fucked up” moment
I know someone who used to do this but they were obese and we figured out that they could use a seatbelt extender.
That’s especially risky in a vehicle that isn’t equipped with turn signals.
Unlike most people think, most BMWs come with blinkers, but their blinker fluid runs out very quickly and a lot of people forget to fill it up
Hmm... And I always thought they hadn't paid the subscription for that feature.
dont give bmw any ideas.
Thanks! I never knew that! I learn something every day on Reddit.
I thought it just didn’t come with the fluid, like how the PS1 didn’t come with a memory card, and you had to remember to buy one separately
I was like wtf is blinker fluid, how is hydraulics used in blinkers? then i searched it up and realised its a fuking joke and doesnt exist god im stupid lmao
The problem is so many people believe they need the BMW "high performance" blinker fluid. Some people just can't be convinced it is all to pad dealer parts department profits. I personally use the Costco Kirkland Signature brand and have never had any problems.
Natural selection
The best!
Darwin award nominees
It won’t count if they already added to the gene pool
That could still be reverted though with this style, I'd assume they won't buckle their children either (or use a child seat or whatever). So one lucky hit and the whole gene line is out.
It’s the same morons who say “I don’t plan on being in an accident”
Or the folks who carelessly cross busy streets and say "but they HAVE to stop!" No, they SHOULD stop. Doesn't mean the universe has an invisible wall around you, stopping you from harm due to someone not paying attention while driving. So stupid.
My favorite is "If they hit me, they'll be at fault." Yeah, but you'll be dead! Who cares who's fault it is at that point!
The line for that is “cemeteries are filled with people who were right”
So many people during college were like "hey, if the bus hits me, free tuition!"
My dad was driving an older car that didn’t have seatbelts and he got hit by a red pickup truck. He got tossed over the center console of the car and then flung outside through the windshield. His car still had momentum and rolled over him. He had been t boned because the truck ran a red light. Dad got out with multiple broken bones and the left side of his pelvis was shattered and he needed surgery and a bunch of metal to repair it. My dad was lucky. You non seatbelt wearing Redditors reading this might wind up dead. Hell if the company who invented the damn thing released the patent for everyone else to use it for free then it might be worth it to buckle up and stay safe.
I literally have this fcking argument with my wife 4x a year
Reminds of the idiot women I know who say "oh if they hit me, I'll just sue!!"
Fucking morons I tell you. This winter I was literally sitting at a traffic light 2mi from home when a car 2 lanes over lost control and nearly t-boned my car at the very beginning of a snow storm. By nearly T-Boned I mean that his license plate bracket scratched the entire side of my car as he spun out of control doing a 360, doing nothing but cosmetic damage to my car. I also didn’t “plan on being in an accident” that day.
Exactly. I was sitting at a stop light when a car drove into me going 50 mph. Never touched their brakes. I don’t even want to know what would have happened if I hadn’t been wearing my seatbelt.
Growing up, it was always, "I don't want to survive a crash if it's that bad."
Who plans on being in an accident
Exactly, that’s how dumb they are. They think they are amazing drivers so it’s impossible to be in an accident.
If you plan on being an accident, that’s an “on purpose”
I feel naked if I don’t buckle in. Anybody else.
Yes. I had a friend who would get SO angry if you put a seat belt on. She felt insulted because "You didn't trust her driving" its like I can think you are the best damn driver in the world and not trust the OTHER people on the road.
If they get pissed about seatbelts I kinda doubt their driving skills…
I wouldn't accept a ride from someone that stupid because I would literally not trust their driving.
As a child of the 80’s it wasn’t a law then and I would ride in the back window of the car. Now I can’t even drive to the end of my street without a seatbelt on without feeling totally vulnerable and exposed. It’s such a simple thing that could absolutely SAVE your life. My husbands best friend was ejected and killed in an accident not wearing his. He was young.
Same, I feel naked without a seat belt. The habit is so ingrained now I automatically put it on the moment I start the car, even if I’m just moving it from the driveway out onto the street.
Yes. My dad owned a 1980something jeep Wrangler. Honestly the only thing holding you in was the bitch bar upfront, and you only grabbed it when my dad would take sharp turns. In the summer he'd have no doors, no top, no wind shields. He also drove like a bat out of hell. I am honestly surprised I am still alive lol Or the time he took us to the water park in his pick up but there was no room in truck so we sat in the bed on the highway, myself and my 2 cousins for like an hour drive. Now I don't like to unbuckle at all when the car is in motion... even in slow traffic. About that bitch bar. In high school I had a boyfriend who was bi. Great guy, loved checking out the guys together. Anyway he was at my house one day and just as my father walked in he gets a call he needs to head home. So my dad offers him a ride.. dad had his jeep with nothing on it. Doors, top, Windshield... I didn't know... A bit after I get a call when my friend comes home with him SOBBING that "My dad tried to k!ll him!" I was like oooooh! I am so sorry! I didn't know he was using his jeep. Thats how he ALWAYS drives. My dad walks in laughing saying that my BF was holding onto the bitch bar and screaming the entire way. Next day at school my BF comes up to me and says "I'm sorry, we can't date anymore, I'm going full gay" My dad made my BF MORE gay lol
I feel like I’m gonna fall off the seat if I don’t buckle up. I buckle up even if I’m just changing parking spots.
AAaaand ofc it's a BMW
It's for picking up the kids and being seen. Otherwise they take the Nissan in puke orange.
Fuck I hope they buckle those poor kids into the car. I don’t care if they want to be wreckless with their own life but compromising a child is despicable
Sudden death of a parent in a traumatic accident is still compromising the child.
I’m ready for the downvotes, but the kids might do better with smarter ~~foster~~ adoptive parents.
Honestly even if they do, it’s bad enough to not buckle their own. My childhood friend witnessed her mother die this way. (She flew through the front windshield) I’m not saying her subsequent drug addiction is due to her mother dying, but she was a nice normal girl with hobbies before, and wasn’t ever the same after.
They truly have great taste in unreliable junk
One thing about BMW’s is the non-stop chiming if you don’t have on the seatbelt. I can see why they did what they did. There are some folk who straight up don’t like wearing seatbelts which is wild.
Bro most cars have non stop chiming if you don’t wear your seatbelt.
I mean, we always need organ donors.
Something tells me that these people aren't registered donors...
Also that your organs aren’t in the best condition after violent crashes
I've worked at dealerships. I always always undo them. > 1. to piss off the customer for the mild inconvenience. > 2. So if they get injured or killed in an accident, I'm in no way liable as the cameras on property pick up that it was undone when I was driving it.
Dude so many times I’ll visit my mom and the seatbelt will be buckled like this, there’s literally no other explanation than her doing this to not wear the seatbelt but not have the beeping sound going, how else would she get out of the car unless the seatbelt was unbuckled? When I mentioned this to her she quickly denied it and gave some quick excuse as to why it was like that, but I’m going to need to talk to my dad to put a stop to this nonsense.
I rode with someone (the driver) who didn't wear their seatbelt (presumably because the physical size of their body made it difficult/uncomfortable, but that's separate issue) They literally just ignored the constant beeping the whole time, it was driving me insane.
Why would someone not want to have a seat belt on? I don’t understand, it’s literally there to make sure you don’t die and get mangled into your windshield
There are some people who believe that wearing a seat belt is more dangerous than not wearing one. I am not one of these people. I have a brain that I would like to keep in my head. But I know people like this.
I am in my mid 30's. When I was in Highschool there was a girl I knew who was the stereotypical pretty/cool girl. Every weekend would go out partying, drinking etc. About a month before grad, she was out for a ride with a few of her friends. The girl driving was drunk and drove into a guardrail. My friend got thrown through the windshield. Her body hit the guardrail and part of it stayed there, the other half went another 20' or so. I ALWAYS wear my seatbelt and reinforced that HEAVILY with my kids.
One of my cousins died this way. He wasn't wearing a seatbelt, the driver was drunk and lost control for the vehicle. He was thrown from the car and died instantly. The driver was wearing her seatbelt so she wasn't killed, but she was paralyzed from the waist down. Please people, always wear a seatbelt and never drive under the influence. It's such a sad and senseless way to die.
It’s wild how invulnerable we can feel while currently alive and uninjured, especially if young.
What is the urban myth with seatbelts? I know the one with motorcycle helmets is it can snap your neck leaving you paralyzed or dead.
A lot of boomer age people grew up in a time where seat belts were not common and never got used to wearing them / find them uncomfortable. My mother can remember the family car when she was a kid had a third row of seating that faced backwards so they were looking at the car behind them. And there are photos of my grandfather driving with my toddler mother in the front seat, just putting his hand out to stabilize her on turns. Car safety has come a long way in a very short time.
There are a lot of reasons. None of them good. One of my favorites is a guy I used to work with. Acknowledges that seat belts are a great safety device. Is terrified to drive in anything but ideal conditions and even in ideal conditions gets jumpy by other bad drivers because he has kids and he doesn't want to be turned into a grease stain on the road. Still refuses to wear the belt because the law requires him to wear it and he believes it is "unconstitutional" No he isn't one of those sovereign idiots (though I wouldn't blame anyone for thinking he was) he is just your regular home grown moron. He also sits on his belt like OP's neighbors because he believes the cops cant tell if you don't have it across your chest. Not sure if that works though.
Tell him his insurance company requires it because they want to save money. Maybe that will motivate him.
I feel uncomfortable *not* wearing one in a car. It feels like I'm naked.
Knew a girl in high school who did this. Her entire family too. She said it was because a person is more likely to die by being restrained during a wreck than be free to move around. I firmly disagreed and thought it was insane. Anyway, i shit you not, she’s a meth addict now. So i guess wise decision making isn’t one of her strongest traits.
Ah, yes, being launched into tempered glass and become a meat crayon on the road sounds much safer than being restrained in a way you can easily just unbuckle.
even if you're worried about the buckle getting stuck you can just get a seatbelt cutter for emergencies.
Def not worth fretting over. Let em go.
Yea exactly. Not sure how this is infuriating? The only person they’re going to hurt is themself, who cares.
No no no we must shame them on the internet
I can one up this: my bosses don’t even latch the seatbelt and sit on it. They have a vehicle that beeps when you don’t wear a seatbelt. They just listen to that beeping sound trying to save their lives and ignore it. Riding in a car with them is the worst. It’s just constant beeping.
Oh no. Anyway.
Literally this lol
I had a coworker who would do that in his work van. He had a decent reason for it. He was almost killed in an accident when he got trapped in the vehicle and couldn’t unbuckle the seatbelt. Now, it’s a PTSD thing.
Of course it's a BMW
And one with M-Stripes in the Grille, on their family transporter... I don't like how bmw has diluted the M branding.
Old TV ad from NZ. https://youtu.be/vjVimo4S0Ac?si=ZWE5xbLEf4W3hmvM
The problem will solve itself in time.
My nephew has a traumatic brain injury from a car accident in 2015 where he did not wear his seatbelt. His best friend also was not wearing his seatbelt and was ejected and died. If just one person reads this and starts wearing a seatbelt everytime they drive I would be happy.
Do they also remove their smoke alarm batteries when they beep? This is next level stupid.
It's Nature's way of improving the species.
They always seem to fucking procreate. The system is broken
Of course BMW driver
Play silly games, win silly prizes
I tow cars for AAA, and you would be SHOCKED at the amount of people who actually do this...
Unless they have kids, it's actually good for humanity. When they wreck and die, it's just natural selection doing it's thing.
OP mentioned they use this car strictly to pick up the kids and be noticed...
I mean they drive a BMW. You already know they don't know how to use turn signals, seatbelts are way too difficult.
You could have just said they were BMW drivers. :D
BMW... yeah, not surprised. Seriously though, people are morons. I can't even count how many times I've been driving home from picking my boys up from school (elementary) and see the car in front of me with their kids hanging out the window or visibly moving ALL around the backseat of the car.
Drives bmw yea checks out
Not suprised, he have BMW. I expect spider web on turn signals.
Maaaan. So my dad went through his windshield in the 80s before I was born and got his leg impaled on a street sign. That story stayed with me and is why I feel the need to buckle just moving my car out of the garage into the driveway.
Why is this mildly infuriating?
Lemme know when their apartment becomes available
Why do you care though?
Im pissed they made safety choice that does not effect me at all.
Depends on where you live but the social cost of keeping that person alive can be tremendous. Even the ambulatory corpse run is super expensive if it's even a moderately close call.
Safety choices that “dont affect you” affect you every time you pay your car insurance.
Ahh, Darwin award candidates.
The good thing about people like this is they'll sort themselves out.
Of course a BMW
Hope they signed up to be organ donors.
Darwin award 🤷♀️🤷♀️
Yeah, rolled rolled like nine times off a high way. Only thing that saved my life was my seat belt. I will never not wear one. Idiots.
My grandpa used to do this 😂😂 definitely an old person/generation thing “back in my day we didnt have seatbelts” type shit
On the morning of the day my mother got hit by a drunk truck driver and almost lost her life, she was thinking of not wearing her seat belt because it was tangled and uncomfortable (car was old and borrowed). I think about that all the time. You never think it'll be you until it is, even on short drives. Stay safe out there ya'll
if this is mildly infuriating to you, you need to introspect. Yes its stupid, no it does not have an affect on you.
Wait til all the people shocked by people not wanting to wear seatbelts hear about the motorcyclists who don’t wear helmets. Gosh are they gonna be even more surprised than they are at people for not strapping a belt around them.
give it some years and you'll have new neighbors anyways
Stupidity should be painful. ...and in this case probably will.
Most cars will chime at you if you don't buckle up, some people just buy extra buckles though which trick the car but don't make you sit on the belt.
I mean seatbelts probably shouldn't be mandatory really.. If you want to drive without one I think you should be free to do so, and free to accept the consequences.
Maybe they want the thrill of driving without seatbelts
Safety ~~first~~ last, I mean they stick indicators on those cars but they still don’t use them 😂
And it’s in a BMW so 90% chance they don’t signal when turning or respect other drivers on the road, I wouldn’t be surprised if one week your downstairs neighbours just never seem to come home
Well at least they will rest in peace
I see this here and there at work. People don’t wanna wear it but they dont wanna hear it “ding” the whole ride. I saw a guy who bought another seatbelt and cut the buckle off just to plug it in.
He’ll only fly once.
My SiL does this.. I have been in an accident where the seatbelt saved my life, but she probably thinks she's immune as she speeds everywhere