Mines on all the time and I do get stick for it from other drivers especially as I put it on leaving depot before getting to the road.
As I say to them and anyone on here; (apart from it being the law) it’s my choice and I’m not hindering anyone else by my actions.
Anyway, it’s far easier to put one on while stationary than it is trying to put one on going round a roundabout indicating, changing gear, putting coffee cup down and trying to disguise mobile phone pretending you have an itch just because you’ve seen a car with a blue light on the top.
Dogmanbodie:
Mines on all the time and I do get stick for it from other drivers especially as I put it on leaving depot before getting to the road.
As I say to them and anyone on here; (apart from it being the law) it’s my choice and I’m not hindering anyone else by my actions.
Anyway, it’s far easier to put one on while stationary than it is trying to put one on going round a roundabout indicating, changing gear, putting coffee cup down and trying to disguise mobile phone pretending you have an itch just because you’ve seen a car with a blue light on the top.
100% correct well said, all the one’s that disagree are the ones that break the rules ie no belts still answer mobiles no hands free, and are the first to complain when they see someone else breaking the law
kitkat:
mal, you say that you don’t wear a seatbelt,unless you feel like it.is that when you see a police car behind you or sitting on the motorways you say it’s your choice but what if something fatal happened(which i hope is never) you are not the one that has to break the news to your wife kids or mum and dad,its that police officer that was first on the scene.how would you feel then,.put it this way do you belt your kids up in the car or don’t you bother or are you one that says it won’t happen to me.mal we as truck drivers have all seen accidents some more serious than others, but when you see someone half way out the windscreen you say to yourself he/she was not wearing the seatbelt.yes i have heard all the facts about seatbelts making it harder to get out the car etc etc,but anything that protects you must be a good thing. don’t think for one moment that your exempt cause your high up.surely it must be better to be safe than sorry
Im live and let live Kitkat, I dont get on peoples case for what they do, the simple truth is, if I even do sometimes think about all the stuff you outline, it soon slips from me mind. I drove for too many years without them, and I dont like wearing them, so I dont. If others do, good for them!
Good on yer Mal. Live and let live. If we choose to risk OUR lives no-one else’ thats our business. All this heart tugging stuff about the kids you leave behind would have a little validity if none of these moralisers smoke, drank, over ate, drove tired, worked in the garden without gloves, sunbathed or any other of the thousand and one ways to die (and in some cases, kill) earlier. They make me sick. Smokers and drinkers risk other peoples lives as well as their own, I risk no-ones by not belting except my own.
I know it’s safer with a belt, so do smokers without ■■■■. So what! Our choice!
jammymutt:
Ahem, what he was implying was that even if it was fitted when the truck is manufactured you could remove it and just not ewear it but as we all know thats not the case…
anyone know when it was made compulsory to have them fitted?
I’ll tell you what David, I might be a dinosaur, and I dont give a ■■■■, but all this PC, H&S, Nanny [zb] gives me the bile. For gods sake anybody would wonder how the hell the human race made it this far!! What without luminous bloody coats, hard hats, this and that daft rule and proper training ect ect ad nauseum, how on earth have we survived! [zb] it all, if I get too much PC garbage here they can stick it, just like the PDA. A life without danger is a life half lived IMHO of course, and if people want to live their lives minimising danger, thats their business, I just aint up for joining them, born free?? what a laugh! I went in a place the other day, and because I didnt have a luminous vest on, they wouldnt do me paperwork! in an office, jesus christ the worlds barmy!!
BondiTram:
I am amazed to find so many claiming to wear belts when the evidence of my eyes on the road is to the contrary. Perhaps the ‘no wear’ brigade are frightened of admitting it. Is it not PC these days not to wear?
It might cost me my life one day but IT IS MY CHOICE!
Salut, David.
Would you call me PC? And it is YOUR CHOICE so I’ll leave you be.
Mal:
I’ll tell you what David, I might be a dinosaur, and I dont give a ■■■■, but all this PC, H&S, Nanny [zb] gives me the bile. For gods sake anybody would wonder how the hell the human race made it this far!! What without luminous bloody coats, hard hats, this and that daft rule and proper training ect ect ad nauseum, how on earth have we survived! [zb] it all, if I get too much PC garbage here they can stick it, just like the PDA. A life without danger is a life half lived IMHO of course, and if people want to live their lives minimising danger, thats their business, I just aint up for joining them, born free?? what a laugh! I went in a place the other day, and because I didnt have a luminous vest on, they wouldnt do me paperwork! in an office, jesus christ the worlds barmy!!
I understand the freedom of choice argument but what about if wearing a seat belt made a difference between you seeing out your days with just the memory of an accident, or spending them as a vegetable (to put it unpleasantly)? What if the choice wasn’t so clear cut as live or die?
If, for instance, you were in a truck that went over and the belt saved you from flying across the cab and breaking your neck (and the subsequent living nightmare that that can bring) would you then think it worth belting up and foresaking a degree of freedom?
I belt-up every time I drive, partly because it’s the law, partly because it makes common sense (and the Volvo safety video was a pretty persuasive factor in that decision). Now that almost every truck has the belt incorporated into the seat it’s no longer as restrictive as the older wall-mounted belts that strangled you every time your Isri suspension did its job, so is there really any good argument against belts (aside from freedom of choice of course)?
I wear the seatbelt in bad weather, and that’s about it. But I DO agree 100% with tthe handsfree ruels, and my phone is wireless handsfree. Great it is, just like nattering to someone in the cab with you.
muckles:
I have no problem with your choice at all, but can you grant us of those who do wear seat belts no more jibes from the macho truckers club.
Muckles,
Can’t grant you that mate because I never made any jibes and have no control over the jibes of others, not that I have seen any in this thread. All the flack comes from the other direction.
Craig,
Please don’t misunderstand me in thinking that I don’t realise the possible consequences including severe disability of not belting up.
That’s not the point I hate the bloody things, always have, and choose to take the risk in the same way that smokers and heavy drinkers do also. The thing that makes my blood boil is the fact that my risk is, although harmless to others, is banned when others’ risks, harmful to others, are not.
Again, before someone accuses me of advocating smoke and alcohol prohibition, I am not. I just think that, like smoking, belting should be a matter of choice.
muckles:
I have no problem with your choice at all, but can you grant us of those who do wear seat belts no more jibes from the macho truckers club.
Muckles,
Can’t grant you that mate because I never made any jibes and have no control over the jibes of others, not that I have seen any in this thread. All the flack comes from the other direction.
Craig,
Please don’t misunderstand me in thinking that I don’t realise the possible consequences including severe disability of not belting up.
That’s not the point I hate the bloody things, always have, and choose to take the risk in the same way that smokers and heavy drinkers do also. The thing that makes my blood boil is the fact that my risk is, although harmless to others, is banned when others’ risks, harmful to others, are not.
Again, before someone accuses me of advocating smoke and alcohol prohibition, I am not. I just think that, like smoking, belting should be a matter of choice.
Salut, David.
Fair point and a fair argument!
from a smoker! and a drinker! and a well everythink! but the ony drug i use is Trucknetuk! (its enough isnt it?)
Anyway, it’s far easier to put one on while stationary than it is trying to put one on going round a roundabout indicating, changing gear, putting coffee cup down and trying to disguise mobile phone pretending you have an itch just because you’ve seen a car with a blue light on the top. 
you say it’s your choice but what if something fatal happened(which i hope is never) you are not the one that has to break the news to your wife kids or mum and dad,its that police officer that was first on the scene.how would you feel then,.put it this way do you belt your kids up in the car 
