Why is it a law to wear your seat belt? Is it to save you or other people?

Vince M

It is to save YOU the hassle of getting killed.

dbraunofva

It saves you because it keeps you in your seat, where the safety features of your car can protect you. It saves your passengers because you're in your seat and not bouncing around inside the car and therefore more likely to stay in control of your car if, for example, you're sideswiped and need to steer or brake afterward. It saves bystanders if you're in control of your car. And finally, it saves all of us money in taxes because we don't have to pay the medical bills of someone who didn't wear their seatbelt, flew through the windshield and landed head-first in the road, turning into a brain-damaged vegetable.

the raven

Everyone has problems cooperating with simple requests that are safe.

rob y

The unfortunate truth is that some people die because of seat belts. But the seat belt has dramatically reduced the number of deaths in car accidents. You can decide not to wear them but consider this fact. Not fiction, but fact.
If a person in the back seat is not wearing a seat belt and the car is in a forward accident(not hit from the side), the person in the front is 5 times more likely to die because they get smashed in the head by the person from the back seat being thrown at them.
So sit in the front of your car and don't wear a seat belt. But if you are in the front and you are in an accident you better make sure the person in the back is wearing one, or you may die.

Lonely Soul

It's meant to protect you and the passengers in your vehicle. Though it is true that there are some cases where the seatbelt actually interfered, the chances of death decrease when wearing your seatbelt.

As for the recommendation to "sit up front" and not wear your belt, that's not a wise decision. I have a friend whose girlfriend was riding with her friends and got into a crash. She was in the front seat, unbelted and hit the roof of the car as she was ejected. Her head hit the roof and her body went through the glass "T-top" of the car...the impact crushed her skull and broke her neck. He went to see her in the hospital and said she was heavily medicated but still whimpered in pain and fear (she didn't recognize him or her own parents). That is his last memory of her because she died while they sat with her. The Had she been wearing her belt, the chances of her surviving would have been almost definite.

My best friend in sixth grade was also in a crash without her belt. She'd taken it off for a moment to get something that fell out of her hands and onto the floor. The impact ejected her out of the windshield and sent her flying over 100 feet. She survived, but that wreck happened over 20 years ago, and she had to go through intense rehabilitative therapy. To this day, she still has to visit her chiropractor weekly to realign her spine and has to struggle with pain and a vertabrae in her neck popping out of alignment frequently. Thanks to that wreck, and not being buckled in, her pregnancy was very traumatic on her body, and she spent much of it unable to walk because her legs would go numb and "stop working" correctly.

So, while it's true that some people get lucky and survive a crash without a seatbelt, you can't assume every crash will be a hit from behind and you will be fine just because you are in a specific seat. And, for my friend, she always wonders if surviving was the better thing. She often tells me she wishes she'd been buckled in.

Polly S

Its been proved to save lives and I'm all for that, you don't have to been cleaver not to want to die

siya

both

safdenny

Both. It's to protect you and others.

UCANTCME

Both to protect you and other passengers.....

sgoldperson

The excuse is to safe YOU, the Govt can only get away with protecting your general welfare as far as doing it. The truth is the law is because people let the Govt have more power then they are supposed to.

Paul

Neither. It's designed to:

1. Prevent you from ending up in a hospital for months on a respirator at Govt. (taxpayer) expense, and

2. increase revenue if you don't obey.

Sorry folks. It has NOTHING to do with your safety. The people who want to get and KEEP as much of your money as they can make these laws.

george 2

it was the beginning of the governments control of your life. within the next 50 years or so you wont be able to do anything without the government telling you what to do!!!

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