Are seat belts really necessary?

Question

The Way Children See Things,
I was driving with my three young children one warm summer evening when a woman in the convertible ahead of us stood up and waved. She was stark naked! As I was reeling from the shock, I heard my 5-year-old shout from the back seat, "Dad! That lady isn't wearing a seat belt!"

Answer 1

I'll give you a serious answer. Seat belts are not necessary. Cars were manufactured without them for decades before they became standard equipment. Cars work quite well without seat belts and did for a long time.

Problem was when they had accidents, and they do tend to have them, people were getting killed or badly hurt. Seat belts have made a difference. They do save lives.

If you wear your seat belt you greatly increase your chances of surviving a wreck that might not even be your fault.

But they aren't really necessary. They are the law, however, in many states, and buckling up is a darn good idea if you don't like paying fines.

They still aren't necessary. But I have been wearing mine since the 1960s.

Answer 2

An amusing story and it made me laugh... but here's a story that will make you think - I hope!

I once worked at a vehicle research establishment where cars were crash tested for type approval. One day we had a Triumph sports car (TR5 I think) in which had been placed two anthropometric crash dummies). The 'driver was wearing lap/diagonal seat belt and the 'passenger' was left unrestrained.
The car was run into the facility's 100 ton concrete, steel faced block, at a speed of 30 MPH. When the accelerometer readings were examined every body was astonished to see that the 'passenger's' head had hit the dashboard of the car with a force of 80g (EIGHTY). 'He' died'! The 'driver' would have been injured, but the g reading was in the survivable range. .
Perhaps that is a good example of why we should all wear seat belts. It certainly made my colleagues and I fit seat belts to our cars, even though in those days it was not compulsory.

Safe Motoring!

Answer 3

I'm surprised noone has mentioned SRS and Airbags.
In today's newer car's there is a Safety Restraint System,keyword is system.If an airbag goes off and you don't have your seatbelt on,you can be severly injured or killed.Today's modern safety system's are made to work in conjunction with each other.An airbag without your seatbelt on is bad news,a seatbelt without an airbag will also only protect so much.The seatbelt is not required to operate a vehicle,though it is required to operate a vehicle legally.Some of the newer system's will actually shut off the airbag if that particular seatbelt is not being used,regardless of passenger presence.
As an EMT,I saw many fender bender 5mph accidents that have severly injured young children due to no seatbelt or restraint...

Answer 4

My parents were in an auto accident that pushed my mother toward the driver's side of the car. She still broke every bone in her body below her waist. Had she been wearing a seat belt, police officers even acknowledged she probably would have died.
My sister was killed when the car she was driving turned over and rolled down a steep embankment. Her husband, who was riding in the passenger side of the car, wasn't wearing a seatbelt. He was thrown free of the car and escaped with nothing more than superficial bruises and minor injuries.
Seat belts are just another form of government control. Next they'll require us to wear helmets to protect us all from head injuries. Then they'll demand that manufacturers design a car wherein passengers are encased in indestructible plastic bubbles to prevent injury or death.
The morons that introduce such insipid laws are called Congressmen, an elite group of pedophiles, wife beaters, liars, womanizers, homosexuals, petty thieves, alcoholics, gambling addicts, cross dressers, shoplifters, cheaters, drug users, rapists - and even a murderer or two - who make laws for the rest of us to follow while they put themselves about those laws.
-RKO-

Answer 5

Actually, your story really caught my attention to the naked
woman who just stood up and waved at you. To be honest
with you, I'll be distracted definitely by this naked woman, if
I'm driving my car close behind her and I will meet with a fatal
accident, if I didn't wear seat belt which has protected my
life.
Thus, it is really necessary for everyone to wear seat belts,
irrespective of any incident on the road. By the way, even a
young child knows the importance of it.

Answer 6

I am a volunteer firefighter in my home community. I can not tell you the number of serious car accidents that i have responded to to find the ones wearing a seatbelt may be injured seriously but they generally live. Numerous cases though of not wearing a seatbelt i have seen people covered up by a white sheet until the county coroner arrives to pronounce them dead. I truly believe that in most cases seat belts do save lives.

Answer 7

necessary for what?
to operate the car?, of course not. yea thay have been making automobiles for years and for those same years people were splitting thier skulls open when thier heads slammed into the metal dash boards. those are long gone now. and if i am not mistaken the creator of volvo cars invented the seatbelt after his wife had an accident that really messed her up or killed her. you may have heard a cop saying they dont unbuckle seatbelts on dead men but thats not at all true. seatbelts are not necessary to survive some wrecks either as my being alive is testament to that but if your vehicle rolls or is involved in a serious accident it may save your life..........now about the naked woman....why were you shocked and reeling?. i would have sped up.

Answer 8

Put it this way...You walk out of the grocery store and place your eggs in a nice safe spot so they won't get broken. You jump in the car and merrily fly out of the parking lot where you are broadsided by a speeding vehicle, you careen into a pole and are thrown from the vehicle (which in most cases lands on top of you), and you die. Or even worse, you are crippled beyond belief and can only move your eyeballs for the next thirty years. Eggs are nice and safe, you get scrambled. Wear it man!

Answer 9

Air bags are designed for frontal effect crashes, this kind of crashes which account for greater suitable than a million/2 of all passenger vehicle occupant deaths. Air bags are designed to shrink head and chest injuries. yet they only supplement risk-free practices belts, they don't replace them.the combination of seat belts and air bags gives you maximum risk-free practices for motorists because of the fact they help the driving force take care of administration of the vehicle and help to circumvent secondary collisions. Air bags at as quickly as set up from the guidance wheel and/or dashboard. maximum adults who're precise buckled up are safer in a vehicle with air bags, however the rigidity of an air bag deploying could injure people who take a seat too on the brink of it. you're able to desire to take a seat down with a minimum of 10 inches between the middle of your breastbone and the canopy of your vehicle's air bag. additionally, place your arms on the guidance wheel on the three and 9 o'clock positions to maintain them out of how interior the form of air bag deployment. -wish it helps you. If not the web content listed under incorporate greater records.

Answer 10

Yes, seat belts are necessary. I applaud your success at teaching even your 5-year-old to focus on what is really important when riding in an automobile, which is to have your seat belt fastened, nude or not.