[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by RedStallion

This is absolutely doable. Thumbs up.

You can never predict any emergency on a highway. In a city driving, you can always manage your car speed within limits and keep everyone safe.
!

There is a reason seat belts are mandatory in nearly any every country around the world. Also, your speed should not make any difference wether you wear or not wear the belt. When wearing seat belts is made mandatory it is always under all conditions. And there is a reason for that.

Even at low speeds, 20-30 km/h you could be seriously injured in a crash. So you really ought to wear your seat belt always. Short journeys, long journeys, low speed, high speed. Always.

Jeroen

[RedStallion]

Originally Posted by Jeroen

There is a reason seat belts are mandatory in nearly any every country around the world. Also, your speed should not make any difference wether you wear or not wear the belt. When wearing seat belts is made mandatory it is always under all conditions. And there is a reason for that.

Even at low speeds, 20-30 km/h you could be seriously injured in a crash. So you really ought to wear your seat belt always. Short journeys, long journeys, low speed, high speed. Always.

Jeroen

Dear Jeroen,

I was referring to child seat which in our India many people are still unaware of or do not use. It is strictly advisable to use seat belts everytime. About the use of child seat, we can spread awareness by making separate thread on safety awareness. Do we have thread available on this topic?

I always use the seat belt while driving. I do it even when I enter my society gate. (Distance to home and society gate is approximately 200 m) Just now, my friend bought Grand i10, I dropped his car at his home. I started his car only after everyone were strapped.

Thanks.

[Thad E Ginathom]

There is a dedicated thread on child seats. There is another thread in which posters tell how they might not be here to write had they not been saved by seat belts.

There are some good reports here, but we still need to work on two dangerous misconceptions:

1. Short journeys are not dangerous.

2. City speeds are slow or safe.

[bordeaux]

I use it whenever it's (rear seat-belt) available and most of my friends make fun of me for not being a man enough. I hope I never encounter a scenario when I can say, "The joke was on you bro!". In most our Uber/Olas, it's not even there.

I always wear a seat-belt and I simply refuse to drive if the front passenger is not wearing the belt. That's the max I can push it to before ending up being alone in this country.

[ToothyPetrohead]

90%, Appalling and complete nonchalance, that to the “if only in dire striats, I’d do it” attitude is really pathetic.

As for the cops their crusade is worth an applaud and yes I did see them halt cars on the Khambatki Ghat stretch, was wondering why? But now I do know after reading this thread.

Blackwasp, by any chance were you travelling on 23rd December? As I did see a couple of Team Bhp cars on the highway.

I have read quite a few threads on how the seat belt saved lives. For one, that of Senior Bhpian RaviB on how the seat belts had saved the lives of his wife and child “Definitely God’s Grace”.

I had also seen a couple of BBC series Top Gear on crash tests. Concurrently a distant family member had met with an accident where in the rear passenger hurt the one in front seat on left side by falling over and crashing into the front wind screen and out onto the bonnet of the car due to impact but thankfully all did recuperate with scars and a lesson in safety.

I did show my child a few videos on YouTube and the threads on Team BHp as to what happens to a person in a crash if a seat belt is not worn, be it in the front or back seat. I sensitized her to the fact that it will keep her safe regardless be it in the front seat for short drives or back seat on the highways.

It is mandatory in my vehicle since some years that, anyone, be it family or friend travel in my car has to be belted up. I did and still do get some resistance from extended family members but for my wife and child it is our way of life.

For those who show resistance with excuses I have purchased the SEAT BELT ADJUSTER so it wouldn’t irritate or give them discomfort.

Family members as well as friends do laugh and make fun at times that I am so finicky about safely and the purchase of the adjuster but I always believe “it is always better to be SAFE than SORRY”

[avingodb]

As a regular Uber and Ola traveller, I find it appalling that on 99% of the instances the rear seatbelts are nonfunctional, mainly due to seat covers being used.
I hope someone at Uber/Ola are reading this and take action in this respect.

[sharc_biker]

I guess most BHPians like me force all passengers in their cars to wear seatbelts at all times. On long drives, I even force the third row passengers to wear seatbelts in my Fortuner.

What appalls me is how some people wear seatbelts only when there's a police checking going on and others who clip the seatbelt to the buckle on the empty seat and sit over it and only pull the diagonal belt portion of the seatbelt over their shoulders.

I have always wondered if these people will do a lean back dance in a crash as their lower body will be sent forward due to the absence of the lap belt and their upper body trapped behind the diagonal belt.

I have seen others who clip the seatbelt to the buckle from behind the seat or use a spare seatbelt tongue on the buckle just to stop their modern cars from blaring the seatbelt alarm at them.

Then I came across this:

[docprashant]

Am yet to come across people using rear seat belts in India...heck even front ones are used to ward off challans as no one gives a hoot about safety. Personally i ensure even my kids are both buckled up in the rear. A booster for my elder one and a car seat proper for my younger one.
I just wish people realize that that keeping kids on the lap is not a sign of affection but a real serious safety hazard.

P.S: If safety was paramount Volvo would have been the market leader and not some tin cans (no intention to offend the market leader though)

[ramji_or]

Ok, now with this thread, I can show and educate my family that there are quite a lot of people in India who choose to buckle up without any law requiring them to do so. Even though we are just 2% of the total population, I could still sense respectable numbers here in the forum.

I am being portrayed as "the villain" who harasses every passenger to buckle up and who does not allow his kid to travel in the car without child seat ever for the shortest of the distance. Some family members avoid travelling with me in my car for this reason.

Even with in the cities, where the awareness percentage was supposed to be higher, we could spot so many people sitting in the front seat without belts holding their kids on the lap. And the worst part is, people tend to explain the logic behind their stupidity, when you request them not to keep the kids in front.

But I strongly feel, it is us "the automotive enthusiasts" fondly called as "Car nuts" who could slowly and steadily educate people surrounding us and make them understand the importance of safety. And I do that at every opportunity regardless of what people think about me.

[vipul_singh]

Been buckling up (whether at front, or at the rear) since seat belts became available - way before the regulations kicked in, that is.

But I have a different question: are rear passengers in cars that are not equipped with rear seat belts exempt from challans on this account? I ask as my 2002 Palio does not have rear belts.

[ts1506]

I have literally blackmailed my friends and family to use seat belts at rear.

The most vehement opposition was from my mom, who is on the healthy side, and is quite frankly uncomfortable with the seatbelts.

A little bit emotional explanation and displeasure from my side over a long period of insistence, and she has gotten the habit of wearing the seat belts first thing when she gets into car.

With my friends, it had to be another approach. I outright refused to transport them, threatened to drop them off in the middle of nowhere if they do not wear it. Eventually, got them to convert as well.

A few days ago, a violent accident occured near my office, where me and my best friend was on spot. He was one of the strongest opposers to rear seat belting, and after seeing with his own eyes, he has understood why I always insisted.

It is hard to convince people, from my viewpoint, a blanket ban on them travelling in my car has been quite successful.

I did not want to risk my friendship with them, but over everything, I did not want to risk my friends.

[bigben]

Not at all surprised to hear of this. 5 days of the week I take the cab to work and one of the main reasons I sit in the front is because of the seat belt. Whenever I sit at the back, either the buckles are tucked into the boot area or the seat belts are pushed behind the seat. When I ask the cab drivers, they just joke and say, "who uses them at the back". Then I educate them about the fact that in an accident, the person at the back gets thrown out of the car and that wearing a seat belt is important can save their life.

I guess if it becomes a law only then will people start using them. Sorry state of affairs

[Venkat_Figo]

I was once ridiculed by a relative for wearing a seat belt while sitting in the 3rd row seat of the Innova, that very day we met with an accident & that very relative's head banged into the headrest of the second row seat, no injuries but he had a very bad headache for 2 days, rest is history.

I have a hard time convincing people to buckle up in the rear seats but when I am in a car, no matter where I sit, I always put on the seat belt. Since logic doesn't seem to help me, I now tell people "we paid for the car with our hard earned money & seat belts are not free in the car, why pay for something & not use it, just waste of money".

[CarNerd]

Forget rear seat belts, there are Seat Belt Alarm Stoppers online. I never knew about them until my cousin showed them in his car. It was given to him by his cousin in turn. Just check these products:







You can buy them on Amazon, Flipkart, etc. It's all about convenience & carelessness. No one really cares about safety. How many of us here drive without rear seat belts? Even I don't wear rear seatbelts while travelling in a Cab. I will definitely wear them next time.

Asking Non Seat Belt wearers to wear them is like asking Smokers to quit Smoking. How many of us in Team BHP smoke? You know about the effects but still smoke don't you? It's the same with seat belts. Everyone knows the risks but only a few care.

[ringoism]

A little seat-belt history below, but first:

Must have been mentioned already, but unrestrained passengers from rearward seats can be thrown forward in a frontal collision with such force that they bend/break the seat-backs of the front seats, putting massive forces on belted front seat occupants, crushing and sometimes killing them. There are probably bad potential consequences for other passengers in rollovers as well. So for a front-seat passenger, or even as one sharing a rear seat, it would seem fully within your rights to insist upon any other passengers buckling up - it could be your own life at stake and it would seem no harm informing them of that reality - certainly no harm in them wearing one. On that note, I could really never understand taxi-wallahs, etc. faking putting on their seatbelts so as to avoid police fines, etc. Is it really THAT bad? I mean, if you're going to all the trouble of pulling it across your chest anyway, what the H is the advantage of having a disabled buckle or plastic backpack buckle or whatever? Saw this last time in Kolkata. Completely Mindless. Humans are funny. Everywhere.

In my homeland WAY back, seat-belt safety was as I recall drilled into kids through various media in the schools first; thus indoctrinated, we used to harangue our adults mercilessly.

Volvo had been the first (and only) to voluntarily install shoulder-belts universally in the U.S. market, sometime in the first half of the 1960's I believe (the company was distinguished in also fitting disc brakes before the law required it). Shoulder-belts became government-mandated several years later, but were initially very cumbersome: My 1969 Oldsmobile had, in effect, four separate belts and two buckles for each front bucket seat: one retractable, one fixed, two adjustable, with the fixed upper part of the shoulder unit being folded and strapped overhead on two retainers when not in use - but yes, I did wear it - rather, "them" - always!! (I was surely one of the few who would, faced with that system).

Single-buckle, spring-retractable shoulder belts were only been mandated in 1974 maybe, and (front) seat-belt use became compulsory by law before very long - but a lot of people a decade later still weren't using them. To try and deal with these evil rebels, in the 80's the government mandated "passive restraints" from the manufacturers - a space-aged advance wherein seat belts which automatically installed themselves across passengers' chests. None were very satisfactory designs even from a safety standpoint, some were failure-prone and expensive to repair, all were irritating. Moreover, they weren't difficult to bypass/disconnect, and statistically more people died in cars so equipped than they had without - so when airbags became standard, they were eliminated. Another of those cases where regulators weren't very smart.

So here we are fifty-odd years later and I think it's safe to say that most (not all) people are finally wearing them in the U.S. - at least in the front seats! Lowest percentage use is actually, almost universally among... the police themselves!!!

So: here's how it went with us kids: I used to tell my grandpa to buckle up, and he'd ignore me; if I persisted, grandma would gently explain: "Kids, Pop-Pop has the steering wheel to hold onto!". How could we answer THAT???!!! He never ended up needing one, by God's grace.

Then my mom. Kept after her, too. She had no issues putting it on, but if we weren't there, she forgot. One day she missed a stop sign obscured by a tree branch and ran out at speed across a state highway and was struck directly on the (thankfully other) side by a pickup also at speed. Car swung violently and her head somehow hit the windshield, which, when it shattered, lacerated her forehead quite badly - not a pleasant thing for anyone, but for a lady particularly. The car, the only brand-new automobile my family had ever bought (or would ever buy), was a total loss. Mom carried those scars quite awhile, and never again forgot to put on the belt.

Well, now my WIFE's Indian, never got in the habit, and I have to remind HER every time. And if I don't, she doesn't wear it. I keep hoping/praying I'm not going to get one of "those" phone calls one day...'

But come to think of it, the Marshal doesn't have rear-seat belts (removed by some former owner). I probably ought to get to that.

-Eric