Wearing a seat belt

[Tasha]

Wearing a seat belt comes natural to me. I think only once in my 20years i did not wear a seatbelt for an entire trip, but then i blame early mornings and young age. And my dad only noticed when we were half way to school that i wasnt wearing my belt, and he told me. Otherwise, i always do, even when i went to India, im not sure about the laws there, but i think its illegal if you dont wear a seat belt when your in the back seats, but i always did, because, well firstly Indian roads are not the safest in the world, and also because as i said before, its just natural.

As for passangers, im a provisional 1 driver, in Australia, thats the red P's, and i think we lose our licence if we have passangers who do not wear their seat belts, or thats the excuse I use anyway. It definitely works on the younger kids. I told my 6yo cousin that if she didnt wear her seatbelt, 'Constable Murphy' (my imaginary cop friend) will take away my licence and put me in jail. It always works. But yeah, i always make sure everyone has their seat belts on before i start the car.

[KaitieL]

I told my 6yo cousin that if she didnt wear her seatbelt, 'Constable Murphy' (my imaginary cop friend) will take away my licence and put me in jail. It always works. But yeah, i always make sure everyone has their seat belts on before i start the car.

Lol, my dad's a cop. His last name is Murphy, but he's a Sergeant now.

My mum also makes sure that everyone's buckled before she starts the car and won't until everyone is. It's a habit that I've picked up as well.

[Barbara]

I was in a car accident a few years ago. A tyre exploded and my aunt lost control of the car. That was the scariest moment of my life! Fortunately, none of us got injured. We were all wearing our seat belts! Plus it happened at midnight, there weren't many cars around and we weren't speeding. The police told us we were lucky. The accident happened on a highway near Brussels where there is a lot of traffic during the day, especially around 6pm. If it had happened at 6 pm, we could have been seriously injured, we could have hit other cars and other people would also have been injured.

I also read that most accidents happen within 30 km from your house (which was our case!). So, even if you only drive for 5 minutes, you should wear it. You never know what could happen. You may be very cautious but there are a lot of reckless drivers in this world.

Not to mention, if you get caught by the police, you'll have to pay a fine. Those fines are usually very expensive! I don't know about the other countries but in Belgium, there are more and more police checks.

I always wear my seatbelt. I actually feel uncomfortable if I don't wear it. I wouldn't start the car as long as everyone isn't wearing his/hers.

I don't get parents who don't make their children wear one. How many times have I seen children playing on the back seat without wearing one? It's dangerous! My parents always made sure my sister and I were wearing one. So did my aunts, uncles and grandparents. And I'll definitely make my children wear their seat belt.

You said you would feel responsible if someone died because he/she wasn't wearing a seat belt while you were driving. I would feel responsible too. Ask your friend how she would feel if that should happen to her. I'm pretty sure she wouldn't feel good about it either.

[Kris10na]

Great topic Eli!

I always wear the seat belt when I'm in a car. If not it doesn't feel comfortable and it feels like something is missing. So it's really a natural thing for me to do when I sit in a car.

I just took a course that you have to take to start test-driving and we got to se a picture of a car which was all destroied and we all thought the driver had died, but he didn't because he was wearing the seat belt. He only got some injuries in his stomach and some bruises, but he was lucky to be alive. So now I'm checking if everyone in the car is wearing the seat belt in the right way.

Of course you can't force anyone into wearing it, but I think they have the responsibility themselves if they choose not to. I wouldn't have liked it if someone wasn't wearing the seat belt when I was driving. That would just be really uncomfortable. I agree with Barbara, ask your friend how she would have felt if she was driving a car and somebody wasn't wearing the seat belt and got injured or died in a accident.