[ex-poster]

Reminds me of an argument I had with a girl once...

For some reason, this girl was adamantly opposed to wearing seatbelts - which is somewhat odd in the first place as usually it's the guys that think it's unmacho. IIRC, she too thought it was an assult on her personal freedom to have to put on the belt. Anywho, we had it out on the topic, and I didn't see her around for a while.

Turns out that months later she rear-ended a car at a tollboth, slammed her head against the steering wheel and lost the majority of her teeth.

I felt sorry for the people she hit...

[Adham]

sticky this thread. thank you for posting.

[danimal]

Here's a summary of this thread for anyone who doesn't feel like reading it all:

Wear your seatbelt. +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1 +1.

(except the one guy who preferred a 5-point harness)

My view: Why buy a car that's engineered for safety and just loaded to the gills with safety features then blow it all by not wearing the best automotive safety device known to man?

-Dan

[tctic]

Yes, great post indeed. No matter how short your drive is, always wear your seatbelt. Always. It only takes one second literally. Once you built your habit of wearing the seatbelt, you'd feel uncomfortable without wearing a seatbelt on a 15 second drive.

Adding to E90Fleet's comment, always make sure the passengers in the rear wear their seatbelt. If they don't and an accident happens, imagine a heavy rigid body ramming into the front seats at whatever speed your car is traveling at and can severely injure the front seat passengers even with their seatbelts on.

[jetblk328i]

pretesioners? i think i know what they are but how do they work?

[AW330i]

Originally Posted by esbezee92

i dont know about most people but i feel naked if i drive without one, i guess its a good habit to have

I always wear my seatbelt but I dont see anything wrong with being naked

[snareman]

Originally Posted by AW330i

I always wear my seatbelt but I dont see anything wrong with being naked

Well, as Mark Twain said, "Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence in society." Although there are some people that might take contention with that these days.

[tctic]

Originally Posted by jetblk328i

pretesioners? i think i know what they are but how do they work?

Pre-tensioners is a safety system in the seat belts. There's an explosive charge which helps the seat belt tighten when the car is experiencing a crash.

[danimal]

Originally Posted by tctic

Pre-tensioners is a safety system in the seat belts. There's an explosive charge which helps the seat belt tighten when the car is experiencing a crash.

To add to this, I've heard/read that in a severe collision, the g-forces are so high that a seatbelt, which seems very inelastic if you just tug on it, can actually stretch out like a rubber band. What the pretensioners do is take up that slack.

-Dan

[SoYank]

BMW, and all car manufacturers for that matter, could make their cars very, very safe without the need for the seatbelt chime quite simply by not allowing the engine to run without the seatbelts being fastened for each passenger the car detects. Then insurance companies could enforce this by denying coverage to anyone that has tampered with the sensors. As for motorcyclists without helmets, the insurance companies could enforce a "no helmet, no coverage" clause. A bit drastic but each of us bear a burden in the form of increased premiums because of the fools that have no sense.

[Dave_3]

Originally Posted by danimal

To add to this, I've heard/read that in a severe collision, the g-forces are so high that a seatbelt, which seems very inelastic if you just tug on it, can actually stretch out like a rubber band. What the pretensioners do is take up that slack.

-Dan

That's a bit misleading. The elasticity of a seat belt is not the issue, and does not change depending on force or speed - it is inherent, and very slight. A seatbelt will not extend any meaningful distance under maximum load before failing.

The pre-tensioner does what it suggests - it takes up any slack in the seat belt, tugging it tight against the body if it is loose with small explosive charges. It does not operate after that.

I always pull my seatbelt tight anyway, but moving around etc. can leave it slightly loose, especially if wearing jackets or "puffy"/layered clothing.

I have a 4 point harness in my other car ... not possible to reach some of the switches on the dashboard with that on ! Pinned to the seat.

D.

[Majikthese42]

Originally Posted by BmwOwnsMe

After reading this, I have one question. You smoked in your car??? That is definately a no no.

You might be surprised as to which behavior is riskier.

[gIzzE]

It is against the law to not wear a belt in the UK, we get a £60 fine and 3 points on our license, 12 points and you are banned for 12-36 months.

There are loads of adverts in the UK about belting up in the rear, I will never let anyone sit behind me without a belt on, have you seen a head on collision where the cars are going 30mph let alone 70mph?? Have you also seen how caved in the back of the drivers head is when the rear passenger comes into the front and headbutts them?? 9 times out of 10 the rear passenger survives while the driver looks like he has put a magnum to the back of his head!!

The only reason I can see people not wanting to wear a belt is it doesn't look cool?
But how cool do you look when you are sat in a home, paralised, dribbling and having some nurse wiping your ass after you have crapped yourself for the 2nd time that day??
Wear a belt and enjoy life!

[Moderato]

Originally Posted by Neurorad

At work at the hospital today. Lots of patients coming in to the trauma center. Injuries would be minimal if they just wore their seatbelts.

Seatbelt -> broken leg, broken arm

No seatbelt -> ejection from car with severe head injury, innumerable extremity injuries, broken pelvis, cervical spine fractures. Or dead.

Always wear your f*cking seatbelt. It's the difference between ejection and no ejection, live or die.

I can't give specifics on the most recent patient that prompted this post, but I can say that make sure that at least your children are buckled in.

When I first started driving, many moons ago, it still was common for people not to wear seatbelts. Especially with me and my teenage friends it wasn't "cool" to wear the seatbelt. At the time I had a good friend who's father was a detective and I guess because of what his father told him about accidents everyday he always wore his seatbelt, and that rubbed off on me. I'm so used to wearing the seatbelt now that It just feels wrong if I don't have it on. In fact I'd say that I don't feel safe if I don't have it on, so I always wear it and I tell everyone that gets in the car to buckle up too, whether they like it or not.

[Clem]

I just can't drive without my seatbelt on. It feels all wrong to me. Even though the belt is somewhat restrictive, it's also comforting.

I love the people that tell you "What if my car's on fire? I want to be able to get out quick". You've most likely been ejected or are already dead.

Then they say "I want to be thrown clear if I wreck". Ejection usually goes poorly.

Almost every day I see someone driving with kids standing up in the back seat, unrestrained. This makes me furious and I don't even have kids! I want to force them to stop and them repeatedly.

[CoralRedPlz]

+1 on not starting to drive unless people have their seatbelts on. i got called 'dad' a few times in high school and got ribbed for it, but its a no brainer for me.

[johnc_22]

Originally Posted by SoYank

BMW, and all car manufacturers for that matter, could make their cars very, very safe without the need for the seatbelt chime quite simply by not allowing the engine to run without the seatbelts being fastened for each passenger the car detects. Then insurance companies could enforce this by denying coverage to anyone that has tampered with the sensors. As for motorcyclists without helmets, the insurance companies could enforce a "no helmet, no coverage" clause. A bit drastic but each of us bear a burden in the form of increased premiums because of the fools that have no sense.

I remember the first time I drove in LA traffic and saw helmet-less bikers weaving in and out of traffic (which admittedly was moving just above a crawl) and thinking WTF are these guys thinking?

An mutual friend in college was driving aggressively on a twisty road early one Sunday morning in his Audi and lost control wrapping it around a tree. He was too cool to wear a belt. Another mutual friend was behind him in another car and got there just in time to see him twitching and quickly dying from the massive head trauma he suffered. No belt? No way. My Dad made us kids wear a belt before it was the law or anything else and now I just don't even think twice when I get in the car - first thing I do is reach for the belt.

[chris_1001]

I almost never wore my seatbelt until I got my 335i. When the weather was bad I would, when I thought I might be getting pulled over Id put it on quick or when I was in a car that had an incessant chime (i.e. some ford rental cars). But I would in some cars lock the seatbelt together and sit on it…

Now that I have a 335i and the damn chime, I wear it. But not by choice...

I will concede that wearing a seatbelt is smart, safe and the right thing to do. Many friends and girlfriends have given me a hard time over it, but I refused... I’ve heard all the stories etc. But I am/was stubborn.

We have had the law here in MA for years (I started driving before the law), but I just hated wearing one. Plus I did not like that it was a law. This is a free country and it should be a choice, period.

Now having said that. While I still hate seatbelts, at least now I have to. No choice as the chime would be annoying on rides over 30 seconds...

So while I still hate it, BMW has done me a favor... Otherwise I still would not wear one...

I still think it should be a personal choice, But I have relented now that my car is making me. My 2004 330Ci had no chime…

[gIzzE]

Originally Posted by chris_1001

I still think it should be a personal choice, But I have relented now that my car is making me. My 2004 330Ci had no chime…

I think it is fine to have the choice if you are prepared to have a sticker in the car that reads......

"I do not wear a seatbelt, so in the case of an accident do not call the emergency services and waste an ambulance on me."

That then gives the emergency services a choice whether they send an ambulance to you or to someone else first. Fair?

[mjh93sa]

Originally Posted by gIzzE

I think it is fine to have the choice if you are prepared to have a sticker in the car that reads......

"I do not wear a seatbelt, so in the case of an accident do not call the emergency services and waste an ambulance on me."

That then gives the emergency services a choice whether they send an ambulance to you or to someone else first. Fair?

If only we could.

Given the millions spent on crash testing and safety to make your car give you the best survival results that are mandated by law. You are a complete idiot if you don't take advantage of them. You might as well walk down the centre of the road rather than the pavement.

There is also a lot more that could be done to improve crash safety. Number one has to be driver education to stop the accidents happening in the first place. Secondly it is high time that legislation mandating crash compatible structures was introduced. Legislation and EuroNCAP and the like all test against a large deformable or otherwise block. In the real world the crash structure of cars is therefore all over the place with the result that in a dissimilar vehicle crash the best is not made of the deformable structures as the crash structure of one car rides over or under the other.

The other feature that cars have these days, as well as the pyrotechnic belt tensioners are belt-force limiters. These will actually pay out the seatbelt if excessive force is reached to limit the injury that the seatbelt would otherwise cause.

On the subject of rear seat passengers, take a look at the following link and go to "TV advetising". It's the ad that gIzzE was refering to.

[SpecC]

This reminds me of a friend of mine who doesn't like to wear seatbelts unless he doesn't feel safe because of a pretty damn stupid reason. He doesn't like the feeling of something constraining him. terrible! I taught him a lesson on the tC one day though. Didn't notice he wasn't wearing his seatbelt, but I decided to take a few corners aggressively and he bounced around and hit his head above my window (tC gives you very little headroom and he is a pretty tall guy). I'm willing to bet he still doesn't wear seat belts around other people but he will damn well put his seat belt on when he's riding with me.

Couldn't agree more with what's been said. I just can't imagine driving without a seatbelt! I put it on when i'm backing it out of the garage to wash the car. The only time I remember not putting one on is when moving the car 4 inches forward, out of the way of someone's driveway.

[markis64]

Originally Posted by esbezee92

i dont know about most people but i feel naked if i drive without one, i guess its a good habit to have

+1000

its hard not to put it on when the chime wont turn off for a long time! And when the front passenger doesn't it makes me angry to hear that chime!