Have you always worn seatbelts?

[tl01]

I have always worn seatbelts. My parents had a rule that if our seats were not buckled and we weren't sitting properly in our seats the car didn't leave the garage. I turn 30 this year and when my brother and I were babies, my parents had our car seats tethered while FFing. I think that's pretty good

 

[TheRealMacGyver]

It might be worth while to put a year with the time you started wearing one, since we are all different ages. For me, I did not start wearing a seatbelt 100% of the time until around 1990. Prior to that, it was only sometimes. Plus, the older cars (that I owned at the time) only had lapbelts or two separate belts, one for lap and one for shoulder. Most of the cars I owned before 1990 were "yachts" so even though I know better now, I felt safer in them back then.

Even today there is one time that I do not wear my belt. Some of you may argue this one. When I go to get gas for my boat I may have 30 gallons of gas in plastic jugs in the back of my SUV. In this case I choose not to wear it. I know some will say that's stupid, because when your knocked out from the impact, you'll burn to death! But, this is the way I've always done it, because in the case of an emergency I want to be able to exit the vehicle as fast as possible. The other thing to remember is that I'm not talking about driving for long distances like this, usually only 1/2 mile from station to boat, driving at slow speeds.

 

[ThreeBeans]

As a general rule I've worn them since I was a child. I remember my parents made a couple of stunned exceptions...

For example when we were about four and two, my mom's car broke down late at night over an hour from the house. Dad folded down the back of the station wagon, put sleeping bags and pillows in it, and laid us down to go back to sleep while he drove out to get Mom

Then, later on, we were about 12, 10, and 5. We were taking an 8 hour drive and the three of us were SO cramped in the back seat, so my parents let me climb in the trunk of the wagon with the dog

 

[lovinwaves]

Always have worn a seatbelt, and so have my parents.

DH is also a faithful seatbelt wearer.

My parents told me when I was 16 and got my car, that if they ever caught me without my seatbelt on that my car would be taken away indefinitely...

 

[TXDani]

I have also always worn my seatbelt since around 8.
I do remember when I was in 1st grade bragging to my two friends that were coming home with me after school that my mom doesn't make us buckle up. But then we hop in the car and she said "buckle up!" and I was like ...I was totally embarrassed and she wouldn't admit to them that we don't normally buckle up. Not too long after that there a girl from my elementary school who was in a horrible car accident right by our house pulling out of their church parking lot. Life flight came and she was in the hospital so long she had to go back a grade the next year. After that we always had to buckle up.

 

[natysr]

My husband always wears his seatbelt, but he DRIVE ME CRAZY as to *when* he puts it on.

This is his driving routine.
1.Get in car.
2. start car.
3. put car in reverse
4. pull out of garage, driveway, or parking spot
5.stop the car dead in the middle of the street or parking lot lane
6. buckle seat belt.
7. proceed to drive away


I fuss at him DAILY about this (we carpool). We've been married 11 years, but I haven't given up yet!

 

[Loves2sing]

My husband always wears his seatbelt, but he DRIVE ME CRAZY as to *when* he puts it on.

This is his driving routine.
1.Get in car.
2. start car.
3. put car in reverse
4. pull out of garage, driveway, or parking spot
5.stop the car dead in the middle of the street or parking lot lane
6. buckle seat belt.
7. proceed to drive away


I fuss at him DAILY about this (we carpool). We've been married 11 years, but I haven't given up yet!

Does he say *why* he does this? It would annoy me just because of the fact that he is wasting my precious time!

 

[Leila]

I truly cannot recall a time when I haven't worn a seatbelt. I do remember when my Grammy started her fork poking to get us to wear seatbelts though! It was 1978, I was 4.

 

[scatterbunny]

Hmm, I know that when I was little my Nana and Papa would let me stand up between the front seats while they drove. That would have been 1983-1985ish? But my mom started dating my stepdad when I was about 6 and he was a firefighter and EMT who showed my mom very graphic images in his training books and told her stories of crash scenes he'd been to, and after that she became very strict about seatbelt usage. Even as a teenager, when the habit was well-ingrained, she would remind me to buckle up every time I got in the car.

So I'd say since about age 7-8 (1986-1987) it's been a habit that I never break. I used to let adults ride unbuckled in my vehicles until I realized what a projectile danger that is to everyone else in the car, so now EVERYONE within my vehicle is properly restrained at all times.

 

[all together ooky]

My dad usually made me. But, I do remember lying in the way back of the station wagon and rolling about. And I do remember lying down on the back seat with the lap belt on.

 

[natysr]

Does he say *why* he does this? It would annoy me just because of the fact that he is wasting my precious time!

He says that that is just when he thinks about it. I think it is habit/muscle memory and just takes re-training.

It is annoying to me too. I always am reaching for the belt while I'm turning the key to start the car. Then my hand goes from the key to the latchplate..buckle, then shift gears.

 

[InTheWoods]

Not always worn one, but do now.

As a kid, I didn't wear a seat belt. I think our car may not have had them?

But did later, at whatever age, don't remember what that was.

Kristin

 

[Niea]

Alway have worn one, My mom had a carseat she always put us in and I even was in a backless booster as a child (till about 8yrs) and that was in the early 80's :thumbsup:

Same with me!

I don't remember it, but my parents did say they went out and bought the finest carseat they could find when I was born. No idea who made it, but they said there were metal bars acting as a base or something. I think I saw a picture of a similar seat on the internet sometime. This would have been 1980.

Then I remember riding in a backless booster. . a Cosco I believe. The older "shield" boosters, I think they were called, where the seatbelt itself when around the booster, not the child.

And then my brother was born in 1986 and I distinctly remember him riding in a carseat for quite some time. It was a pretty nice one, too (at least for the time).

So after we both got out of carseats and boosters, we've always worn our seatbelts. My parents do religiously and we just learned from them. I do remember a few times on long trips, though, putting the shoulder belt behind me when my parents weren't looking. . .but when they saw me they always made me put it back. Not bad, considering the era!

 

[An Aurora]

When I was a kid, my sister and I weren't allowed in the front of the truck and we always rode unrestrained in the back of the truck w/ a canopy. I started wearing a seatbelt when I was 10 or so, and 'allowed' in the front of the truck. I didn't start wearing one religiously until I went thru driver's ed in high school. Now I never ride without a seatbelt, ever.

 

[Lys]

I didn't *consistently* wear a seatbelt until after I rear-ended another car NOT wearing one when Cole was a baby .
The EMT ( who I went to HS with) said if I had been going about 5mph more, I would have completely been thrown through the windshield.
The car's windshield looked like a softball had been thrown into it from the inside. My head fit perfectly into the crevice along with handfuls of hair that was ripped out when I hit it. I also needed 6 stitches to close the gap in my forehead.
Now, you're dang skippy I wear one all the time.

 

[Loves2sing]

I didn't *consistently* wear a seatbelt until after I rear-ended another car NOT wearing one when Cole was a baby .
The EMT ( who I went to HS with) said if I had been going about 5mph more, I would have completely been thrown through the windshield.
The car's windshield looked like a softball had been thrown into it from the inside. My head fit perfectly into the crevice along with handfuls of hair that was ripped out when I hit it. I also needed 6 stitches to close the gap in my forehead.
Now, you're dang skippy I wear one all the time.

Dang skippy? That's awesome, I think I'll have to start using that expression! LOL

 

[Simplysomething]

Have you...
- Always worn a seat belt

I have always worn a seat belt. Feel naked in the car without it.

 

[BudgieStew]

Since about 5 years old. I woud regualy wear my selt belt but on odd time not.
When it became law in my province and when my Father taught me a lesson by slamming on the breaks and I hit the seat and split open my lip.
Strangely the two accidents I was in previous to that(each time the car I was in was totaled) while not wearing a seat belt also at same age did not have the same effect. One I do not remember, the other I only remember the after math with the police etc.

Elementry school my cousins and I would go camping with my grandparents and travel in the back of a pick up truck with a cab.I think that is what they would call it. Gives me nightmares now to think of what could have happened. yet Grandpa didn't want me climbing tree's in case I got hurt.

When I was 16 my parents allowed me to travel on a two day trip on a classic car which had no selt belts in the back.

Course high school I piled into cars sans seat belt or in cargo area's usually the driver was high or drunk but generaly tried to make sure that even if other's didn't I at least had a belt. Not that their bodies would not have crushed me.

Then in college not in cabs but always in other cars.

Now never never never do I travel in a car without my seat belt on or making sure that the other's do.
My Mil and DH have the nasty habit of slinging off the belt seconds before the driveway. I hate hate hate that....hello people accidents happen in your driveway too. How many people hit the gas instead of the break. A lot.

Sorry for the spelling errors NAK and my parent odd split keyboard.

 

[twom]

I've always worn a seat belt, as has all my immediate family. My parents would not even let me ride with anyone if I couldn't be in a seat belt. Of course, they were always only lap belts. And I remember many times laying down with one on. And we traveled in my dad's antique cars without any (like 1910's cars). And it was ok to ride loose in the back of a truck to go tubing. But if we were traveling in a car with belts, we did wear them, and any of his cars that were 1940's or newer were retrofitted with lap belts. It's a bit of a sore point with them now, I think, that I won't let my kids ride in any of those cars. They don't make a big deal of it or anything, but it is awkward.

I also remember having a booster as a little kid, probably up to age 4-5. It was a little plastic seat that sat up on metal supports, and the lap belt went through holes in the plastic arm rests. I know my little brother had a convertible car seat too in the early 80's.

 

[Yoshi]

As a child in the 60's and 70's, I didn't (parents didn't either) but when I began driving in '82, my 1st car didn't have them, so I made my step-dad install them (now I know that wasn't such a great thing to do) Ever since then, I've worn seat belts. DH has always worn them, even before the laws.