Comment by eru

3 hours ago

> It was legal to buy a car that had a seatbelt before the seatbelt became mandatory.

Yes, making seatbelts mandatory was also a weird decision.

9 comments

eru

Reply
defrost  3 hours ago

Weird in what way?

As an example of public policy it had significant impact on death, injury, medical costs, etc.

Road Traffic Accidents before and after Seatbelt Legislation-Study in a District General Hospital (1990)

  Injuries among samples of car accident cases attending the Accident & Emergency (A & E) department of a District General Hospital (DGH) in the year before and after the introduction of seat belt legislation were classified applying the Abbreviated Injury Scale using information recorded in the patient case notes.

  Those who died or did not attend an A & E department were not included in the sampling frame.

  The number of those who escaped injury increased by 40% and those with mild and moderate injuries decreased by 35% after seatbelt legislation. There was a significant reduction in soft tissue injuries to the head. Only whiplash injuries to the neck showed a significant increase.

~ https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/014107689008300207

( ^ One of many before/after studies that highlight difference made by seatbelt legislation )

  • eru  2 hours ago

    Oh, seatbelts are great, and I wouldn't want to ride a car without one.

    However people who don't want to wear seatbelts generally only endanger themselves. So why force them against their will?

    • varnaud  1 hour ago

      >generally

      The downsides to have seat belts usage not mandatory outside of reducing deaths/injuries. A few that comes to mind:

      1. Parents don't wear them -> kids don't wear them 2. Friends don't wear them -> peer pressure not to wear them 3. Accident happens -> body flies out the window (risk of hitting someone, makes a mess to clean up) 4. Accident happens, person survive but is injured and is now a cost to society

      Upsides (I worked with someone who refused to wear it and told me something like that):

      1. Anecdote about someone that was wearing one and got into an accident and the seat belt somehow prevented them to escape the burning car and they died 2. It's less comfortable 3. Makes me feel alive (freedom)

      He would only falsely wearing it when there was suspected police presence.

    • defrost  1 hour ago

      Also their families (the kids normalise no seatbelts and spend their childhood with no seatbelts), also first responders (???!!!)

      In reality, the worse an accident is (deaths, injuries) the longer and more difficult the clean up process is .. increasing the time that normal traffic flow is impacted and increasing the danger to all those attending who are exposed to potential (and common place) cascading disasters.

      The deaths and injuries impact the local health response services - raising costs, demand for resources, and impacting triage decisions (fewer injured non seatbelt wearing idiots to look after, more free resources to devote to other patients).

    • leoedin  1 hour ago

      Have you seen footage of how quickly an unbelted person moves around a car when it crashes? If there's someone in the passenger compartment without a seatbelt they can cause serious damage to everyone else - especially children.

ajuc  3 hours ago

Saving hundreds of thousands of lives was a weird decision?

  • eru  2 hours ago

    Seatbelts are great, and I wouldn't want to ride a car without one.

    However people who don't want to wear seatbelts generally only endanger themselves. So why force them against their will?

    • throwaway_ocr  1 hour ago

      In addition to all the sensible reasons others have pointed out, if you crash at a high enough speed without a seatbelt you become a projectile. If you are in the back seat when this happens, you are most certainly a danger to those in the front seats.

      If the seatbelt saves your life from an accident in which you were at fault, it is easier to prosecute and extract compensation from the living than from the dead.

    • ajuc  1 hour ago

      Same reason you try to save somebody who wants to jump from a bridge? Cost is marginal and potential benefit is huge.

      Additionally if it was optional people would forget to do it more often even if they don't consciously choose to risk their lives for no reason.

      BTW they are not only endangering themselves - they also endanger their kids.