Poll: Have you ever been cited for not wearing your seat belt while driving? / LJWorld.com

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Note: This is not a scientific poll. The results reflect only the opinions of those who chose to participate.

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Jake Esau 1 year, 11 months ago

Woo! First vote!

pizzapete 1 year, 11 months ago

No, I always wear mine and use the turn signal, too.

Ron Holzwarth 1 year, 11 months ago

Unfortunately, you seem to be in the minority.

BostonJayhawk88 1 year, 11 months ago

I've been stopped twice and did the same thing, both times I was asked if I was wearing my seat belt and had to explain that I can't get my wallet out easily without removing the belt. Both times the explanation was accepted with skepticism. From now on, I'm going to leave the belt on and let them watch me get the wallet out.... It's not worth the hassel of them thinking you're lying.

Pywacket 1 year, 11 months ago

My car doesn't go into "drive" gear unless everyone in it is buckled in. My adult kids put theirs on automatically--they don't even have to think about it. I know they're not just doing this for Mom's watching eyes, as I see them out & about now and then and can see the shoulder harness in use.

It's one thing to die in a catastrophic accident that no one could survive.... It adds another level of tragic futility when someone dies in one that didn't HAVE to be fatal. That kind often involves the person being flung violently through a window as the vehicle collides with a tree or other vehicle--or if it rolls. If they are belted in, they have a far better chance of surviving.

Ron Holzwarth 1 year, 11 months ago

When I was young and dumb(er), I was driving at about 65 mph, which was way to fast. I slid on the ice, went flying off the highway, and collided head on with a tree.

Years later, a friend was driving my car, again at about 65 mph. He spun my car completely around, we went backwards into the ditch, and then we did the flip and roll. Wow, was that car ever smashed!

Thanks to seat belts, I wasn't hurt when I hit the tree. But, I did get hurt when the car flipped and rolled.

I got some scratches on my wrists!

Pywacket 1 year, 11 months ago

Exactly! And lived to tell the tale...

croutons 1 year, 11 months ago

does your car have some sort of sensors that detect whether or not the back seats and/or the passenger seats are actually occupied?

croutons 1 year, 11 months ago

or are you saying that YOU don't put it in drive until everyone is buckled in?

Pywacket 1 year, 11 months ago

I don't put it in drive until they are buckled in! Sorry--assumed that would be clear, but with rapidly changing technology, I guess you never know!

jhawkinsf 1 year, 11 months ago

Gotta admit I did get a ticket for not wearing a seat belt. It was many years ago. Now it's the firth thing I do when I get in a car.

grammaddy 1 year, 11 months ago

Key doesn't touch ignition until everyone( frontseat or backseat) has "made it click"! Even the 3-year-old knows that. She's quick to tell them to hurry up. I love my little "seatbelt police".

Liberty275 1 year, 11 months ago

Five years ago, my wife and I got "failure to wear" tickets in colorado. We used to visit colorado every other year or so, but since we arent going to pay the fine, we have been going around colorado on trips out west and traveling more to the east and south on vacation.

Those tickets have cost the state of colorado many thousands of dollars in just the money we would have spent there on vacations.

jhawk0097 1 year, 11 months ago

rofl

BostonJayhawk88 1 year, 11 months ago

How much have you spent altering your vacation plans?

Math... it's why the country is where it is. Case in point.

Bad thing is... you still think you're the winner..... rofl.

Kontum1972 1 year, 11 months ago

its the Law JkCass

Paul R. Getto 1 year, 11 months ago

I used to work in the emergency room at Lawrence Memorial Hospital. Nuff said; won't go down the block without being buckled in. I used to specialize in holding the young man's hand in the emergency room, watching him cry while we picked what was left of his girlfriend's face out of what was left of the windshield. Often the guy would be buckled in, but the girlfriend sitting right next to him wasn't. Cars are deadly weapons.

classclown 1 year, 11 months ago

Kids and airbags got me in the habit of wearing seat belts long before it became a law, so I've never been cited.

I've gotten so used to wearing one, it's like having a watch. Whereas you kinda feel naked without it.

Yeoman2 1 year, 11 months ago

This is all well and good but the basic problem is the kind of behavior behind the wheel that causes accidents. I have been driving all my life (I am 67) and have never been in a vehicle accident. I am not bragging, I just know that most all accidents are preventable if you pay attention to your driving and anticipate what the other driver might or might not do. It has been called defensive driving. It has been my observation that driving skills have deteroriated severely in recent times, mostly because of idiots with cell phones, blackberries and other pursuits when you should be intent on driving the car and watching out for other vehicles. But I realize that I am in a minority, that most everyone is in a big hurry to get somewhere insignificant, and is heading for a terrible accident in their haste. No seat belt is going to protect an idiot and that is simply the way it is.

Pywacket 1 year, 11 months ago

Not to take away from your self-congratulatory glow, but most of us are good, defensive drivers and probably everyone responding on this thread could cite many instances of their own successful avoidance of otherwise terrible accidents. If most of us were NOT good, defensive drivers, there would be far more accidents (from fatal on down to fender bender) each day, given the sheer number of vehicles on the roads, the speeds at which we travel, etc. The accidents get the attention, obviously, but there's no way to measure how much accident avoidance goes on. It's got to be phenomenal.

And I beg to differ: seat belts ARE going to protect many an idiot and buy him/her a second chance to be a better driver. You apparently didn't think that one through very well. If (for the sake of discussion) you want to posit that "idiots" cause the most accidents, it would follow that the idiot who at least had the sense to wear a seatbelt is the very person who is most likely to be protected (from consequences of his own idiotic wreck). The idiot who (for example) runs off the road and hits a building or a tree because he's drunk, texting, reaching for his cigarette, etc, can easily walk away from his wreck if he's got his seatbelt on--but not if he has been propelled head first through the windshield.