What I don’t understand is drivers who refuse to wear a seatbelt in the truck (upto and including the morons who plug it in and sit on top of it… 
), and then get into their car and wear their seatbelt without a second thought.
Interesting thread. I remember growing up hearing all kinds of stories about how seat belts were uncomfortable, restricted movement, etc., so when I started my car driving lessons, thought what’s all this about… Nothing really, I put it on and it was no different.
Now that was just over 30 years ago, yet I still get in a truck sometimes and seat belt is already ‘clunk-clicked’ into place to stop the reminder going off on the dashboard. It’s not uncomfortable and doesn’t restrict me, why do some drivers do it still, I don’t know. Maybe they ‘old skool’ still, ok fine, but for me, if the truck has one, I use it. Might only take a second or two one day to regret it, and by then it might be too late. But each to their own I suppose…
Not a driver ,but with Brake Brothers DAFs if the belt isn’t plugged in the vehicle is restricted to 10kph …But instead of putting the belt on ,unless a driver has a recognised medical condition ,Some drivers will spend more time routing the belt round the back of the seat ,rather than just put it on…I personally think with some it is an ego thing ,look at me I’m hard I drive a truck and don’t wear a seat belt …Some companies now specify red belts so it is easier to spot a driver not wearing it
10 year ago, my mrs would have been dead if she had not been wearing a seat belt. Daft old ■■■■ pulled out in front of her, she was doing 50 MPH and she hit him broadside. I was also second on the scene and saw the destruction first hand.
That was good enough reason for me to always wear a seat belt in the truck or my car.
Not putting one on is a mugs game.
Lot of years ago now but if a mate of mine & his wife had been wearing a seat belt they would not be here now as a vehicle pulled out in front of them they just managed to duck down went under but were saved if they had seat belts on there heads would have rolled
Never used to like wearing one ( partly due to hight ) as they were always fixed so cut across my neck still do to an extend even the lorry 1 although do wear can be uncomfortable due to cutting across me really need to have more adjustment on them
When testing ask women of different hight’s that would be more effective
A mate of mine who is a driver never used to wear his no real reason until he got caught with a picture & had a fine to pay only £60 at the time now he wears it
Back in the day, truck seatbelts, if they were fitted at all, were not very well designed; top mount was often fixed to the cab rather than the seat which was uncomfortable (and possibly even dangerous) on a bumpy road if you’d got an air seat.
Add to that the fact that wide-angle mirrors were very rare, so you’d got to move your body about much more than you do in modern trucks at an angled junction, which caused issues with inertia-reel belts.
I admit to being one who said in those days that if they ever became mandatory in HGV’s I would pack the job in. Till I had a shunt which, had I not been wearing a belt, would have caused me more serious injury. Nowadays I belt up without a second thought, and don’t really feel comfortable without a seatbelt on. Incidentally, I learned to drive in the army, where use of seatbelts (where fitted) was mandatory long before it became civvy law, so I’ve always used a belt in my car.
To my mind, those who don’t bother do so for two reasons; one because in their heads they’re Burt Reynolds cruising down the freeway in a Peterbilt, the others because in the same manner as the minority of bikers who still campaign for repeal of the helmet laws, they resent being told what to do and think it doesn’t matter if they get killed or seriously injured because it’s their choice. Sometimes the law exists in order to protect people from themselves.
Sidevalve:
Back in the day, truck seatbelts, if they were fitted at all, were not very well designed; top mount was often fixed to the cab rather than the seat which was uncomfortable (and possibly even dangerous) on a bumpy road if you’d got an air seat.Add to that the fact that wide-angle mirrors were very rare, so you’d got to move your body about much more than you do in modern trucks at an angled junction, which caused issues with inertia-reel belts.
I was going to say pretty much the same thing. Not using one in the truck, I didn’t use the one in my car either unless my wife nagged me. I only started to wear them when being annoyed by the buzzer/ding-dong was even worse.
Stupid really - they do save lives.
The law before I left the UK was that Taxi drivers and Lorry drivers were exempt.
Most modern fleets that have computer tracking and recording etc can monitor everything, if I go into the system on my truck it shows the percentage of seat belt use so my company and most others know exactly how much you wear the belt.
The-Snowman:
Why are taxi drivers exempt but hgv drivers are not?
Incase they get chibbed
Plenty cases over the years where not wearing a seatbelt has saved a life
Should not be law imo
Back in the day in the forces it wa as chargeable offence to be caught without a seat belt on way before it came in civvie street.
I used to wear mine to get off camp then take it off for some of the reasons described.
I was a passenger one day in a Bedford that was involve in an accident and rolled over.
I was thrown forward and hit the windscreen and went straight through it.
The whole windscreen came with me and I landed on the road on teh windscreen flat on my back sliding down in front of the wagon.
I almost got run over by a bloke in an Astra who almost had a nervous breakdown but managed to miss this idiot flying through the air.
The driver who was wearing his seatbelt was given a lift back to camp as they scraped me off the tarmac and took me in an ambulance to the local A & E.
I was very lucky I got mostly cuts and bruises my back looked like a road map it was scratched and scraped to bits.
I was lucky had the guy in teh Astra not swerved he’d have hit me full on about 60 mph plus had the wagon slid I would have been crushed between it and the wagon that initially hit us.
Then I got back to camp for a one way conversation about wearing seatbelts…
Tommy7437:
Plenty cases over the years where not wearing a seatbelt has saved a lifeShould not be law imo
Plenty of cases over the years where wearing a seatbelt HAS saved a life.
Should be the law imo. [emoji6]
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I only started wearing them in recent years when they started nicking lorry drivers.
Wardrobe door mirrors on lorries was my main reason, losing sight completely of even transit sized vehicles when approaching give way junctions and roundabouts is a real problem for us with some mirror casing designs, previous model Volvo FM/FH and MAN’s prime examples of ■■■■ poor design, so preferred being able to move freely for max vision.
I’ve given this reason before in a belt discussion and one of the usual suspects had a go, he must have forgot that post when he admitted to losing sight of a vehicle in the same way in another thread, wonder if he’ll pipe up again 
Still don’t like the feeling of the belt.
Thanks all. Great range of comments posted here on the subject. Much appreciated.
Chris
I didn’t wear a seat belt until the late 90’s, well until then I never had a truck with them fitted. In 1998 I got a brand new Premium, which had fitted belts To begin with I resisted wearing it, they were poorly designed coming across the shoulder low with no way of lifting it, it made my right shoulder ache so much after a long drive. Then I read an article I think in “Wheels”, in which it told the story of a driver being thrown from his cab during an accident, he fell from the M25 down onto the A127 below, the driver was killed by the injuries sustained. That got me thinking about life and my wife and 1 year old son, from then on I used the belt more and more, until my shoulder didn’t ache, and it had become 2nd nature.
Someone else has already mentioned about compensation. In the mid 2000’s, a driver at a company I was at, rear-ended a tractor, low speed shunt in which both drivers walked away with cuts and bruises. The guy did have time off work as he’d aggravated a long standing back problem, the company refused to pay their normal sick pay terms (basic salary), instead gave him SSP, about £50 odd a week, anyway this ended up at a tribunal, and the company were found in breach of contract, but the guys payment was reduced due to him not wearing a seat belt at the time of the accident.
I have little tolerance for those that drag the belt behind the seat, to clip it in, as this tends too twist the belt making it uncomfortable for those that want to wear it. If you complain though (to the said driver) you get all the excuses, but no kind of recognition that they’ve now made it uncomfortable for others, they are only interested in what suits them, not dissimilar to smokers.
Got into the habit of wearing mine on all but on site movements now that I no longer drive an MAN (see Juddians post). Whether others wear theirs on not concerns me not one bit. I won’t lecture them and I don’t expect them to lecture me.
I’m young enough that wearing a seatbelt has just always been the norm.
Personally, I don’t notice it when I’m driving but as soon as it comes to manoeuvring I take it off as I can feel it bothering me.
Have to admit ive never liked belts when they were first introduced and still dont wear one even now, just find the thing across my chest annoying. A dummy belt in the clip keeps the warning light off. Yes its a fine in the making but ive never actually been pulled for it…
Tommy7437:
Plenty cases over the years where not wearing a seatbelt has saved a lifeShould not be law imo
There are some, I agree; but statistically there are far more cases where mandatory use of seatbelts has reduced the numbers of both deaths and serious injuries. Governments have to use those statistics to enforce policy; it has to be a “one size fits all” approach whether you like it or not.
As with the case of motorcycle helmets which I mentioned earlier, the fact remains that if you are involved in an accident, you are far less likely to be killed or injured if you are wearing a lid than if you aren’t and the same goes for seat belts in cars and lorries. The common arguments like “I’m an experienced driver and have never had an accident” are utterly spurious because even the world’s best driver is at the mercy of everyone else. I’m sympathetic to Juddian’s comments regarding poor design but the only way that’s going to change is for consumers to put pressure on manufacturers to improve the ergonomics, which are largely dictated by unit costs.
Just because you, personally, don’t like seat belts isn’t a logical reason to argue for the law to be repealed.
I don’t wear a belt simply because the truck I’ve been driving is so old it doesn’t have one! Still jump into it and reach for the belt half the time as it’s an auto response and if it had one I would wear it. Don’t even notice it 9/10 and that 1/10 is usually a strange junction or maneuver in the yard where I’ll just ping it off long enough to do the task.