newmercman:
they should take every seatbelt & airbag out of every vehicle on the road & replace them with a big spike coming out of the steering wheel, I bet there wouldn’t be no more than a few accidents each year then
I’ve been saying that for years. It would bring about a massive reduction in accidents but H&S would never allow it, they prefer their methods which allow people to carry on killing themselves.
As ive said in another thread i have been in 2 quite serious car accidents, 1 with me driving and the other a group of us 17 year olds at the time crammed into a renault clio and had a head on at about 45mph, we were all wearing seat belts and walked away. I always wear a seatbelt but that is because i have been brought up with them, i think for the maturer driver now days its difficult to adapt to something that wasnt always there, force of habit probably.
Got one for those of your who know the law inside out, in my truck at the moment the seatbelt is broken, I defect it everyday at the bottom in other comments so if i was pulled by the old bill would i still be peanalised to the full extent?
FarnboroughBoy11:
As ive said in another thread i have been in 2 quite serious car accidents, 1 with me driving and the other a group of us 17 year olds at the time crammed into a renault clio and had a head on at about 45mph, we were all wearing seat belts and walked away. I always wear a seatbelt but that is because i have been brought up with them, i think for the maturer driver now days its difficult to adapt to something that wasnt always there, force of habit probably.Got one for those of your who know the law inside out, in my truck at the moment the seatbelt is broken, I defect it everyday at the bottom in other comments so if i was pulled by the old bill would i still be peanalised to the full extent?
I wear a belt in the car, otherwise the ■■■■■■■ thing keeps beeping at me 
again I drive so that I don’t crash, so the seatbelt is just a waste of time really.
As far as I know, if the seatbelt is broken you shouldn’t take the truck out, I doubt a decent copper would give you a ticket if you proved it didn’t work, but I reckon VOSA would give you a PG9 & you’d be parked until it was fixed.
Its there , it might save your life , it might give you a lifetime seeing your kids grow up - why not wear it 
im presently exempt from wearing seat belts in lorrys due to a lung operation and seat belt in lorry rubbin on wound
but wear belts in my car
im 50/50 on wearing belts as a few years ago on german autobahn crashed… seat belt saved my life still ended up in hospital for 6mths tho
about a year later rolled a army landrover 101 wasnt wearing seat belt and thrown clear of vehicle, saved my life as vehicle exploded into flames seconds later
having spent 15 years as a firefighter, I’ve seen enough dead bodies to last my life time, and placed too many acident victims into body bags. don’t think in all that time I have seen anyone survive an accident simply because they were NOT wearing a seat belt. I have cut many people out of cars and trucks who were wearing seat belts, and are still alive to tell the tale. Having spent one evening walking along side a busy dual carraigeway, with a thermal imaging camera, looking for the head of a decapitated truck driver, who would have been alive today if he had been wearing a seat belt, I always wear mine, my choice. it takes ten seconds to put on, and may add 20 years to my life. Only time i will take it off, is when doing low speed reversing, and i feel naked without it!
If you choose not to wear a seat belt, that is your right, but this is one health and safety law that is there for a good reason. I have heard drivers refuse to take a truck out for not having a radio working or maybe the air con is not cold enough, things that we can live without, but something that is there purely to save your life, becomes some kind of “macho” icon and so many choose to not to use it, or will continue to drive even though they know its not working properly’.
I will concede that there may be occasional instances where, by not wearing a seat belt, someone did survive, but these are far out weighed by the amount of times seat belts have saved lives.
i remember many years ago before seat belts were fitted in most trucks, being asked to take a baby volvo truck out in which the entire seat was loose, I refused to drive it, the TM started threatening me with all sorts of discipline, so I took the seat out of the truck, banged it down on his desk, and told him to drive the [zb] thing! I would do something similar today with a defective seat belt>
When i go to work ni the morning, I want to come home save that night to my wife. I don’t want some Plod having the terrible job of telling my wife that I won’t be home. i don’t want some poor sod of a firefighter having to put me into a body bag then go home to his wife and family and try to have a normal life. From experience, I know that every fatality will stay with that police officer, firefighter or paramedic for the rest of thier lives, so I will do anything i can to keep me safe.
Be interesting to see if anyone can put such a good alternative view as that given by truckerjon for the wearing of them…
ROG:
Be interesting to see if anyone can put such a good alternative view as that given by truckerjon for the wearing of them…
So what about trains and buses Rog.It seems that the ‘risks’ can be ignored when it suits the commie zb’s.
truckerjon:
having spent 15 years as a firefighter, I’ve seen enough dead bodies to last my life time, and placed too many acident victims into body bags. don’t think in all that time I have seen anyone survive an accident simply because they were NOT wearing a seat belt. I have cut many people out of cars and trucks who were wearing seat belts, and are still alive to tell the tale. Having spent one evening walking along side a busy dual carraigeway, with a thermal imaging camera, looking for the head of a decapitated truck driver, who would have been alive today if he had been wearing a seat belt, I always wear mine, my choice. it takes ten seconds to put on, and may add 20 years to my life. Only time i will take it off, is when doing low speed reversing, and i feel naked without it!If you choose not to wear a seat belt, that is your right, but this is one health and safety law that is there for a good reason. I have heard drivers refuse to take a truck out for not having a radio working or maybe the air con is not cold enough, things that we can live without, but something that is there purely to save your life, becomes some kind of “macho” icon and so many choose to not to use it, or will continue to drive even though they know its not working properly’.
I will concede that there may be occasional instances where, by not wearing a seat belt, someone did survive, but these are far out weighed by the amount of times seat belts have saved lives.
i remember many years ago before seat belts were fitted in most trucks, being asked to take a baby volvo truck out in which the entire seat was loose, I refused to drive it, the TM started threatening me with all sorts of discipline, so I took the seat out of the truck, banged it down on his desk, and told him to drive the [zb] thing! I would do something similar today with a defective seat belt>
When i go to work ni the morning, I want to come home save that night to my wife. I don’t want some Plod having the terrible job of telling my wife that I won’t be home. i don’t want some poor sod of a firefighter having to put me into a body bag then go home to his wife and family and try to have a normal life. From experience, I know that every fatality will stay with that police officer, firefighter or paramedic for the rest of thier lives, so I will do anything i can to keep me safe.
In those 15 years did you ever see the results of what happens when a cab over truck hits another one in a big way compared to a conventional ■■.Probably not because unlike seatbelts we are’nt allowed to have the choice in using bonneted wagons because of the stupid regs.It seems that you’re being a bit selective in your safety ideas.
Carryfast:
ROG:
Be interesting to see if anyone can put such a good alternative view as that given by truckerjon for the wearing of them…So what about trains and buses Rog.It seems that the ‘risks’ can be ignored when it suits the commie zb’s.
so true mate - would not be that difficult to install them
Carryfast:
truckerjon:
having spent 15 years as a firefighter, I’ve seen enough dead bodies to last my life time, and placed too many acident victims into body bags. don’t think in all that time I have seen anyone survive an accident simply because they were NOT wearing a seat belt. I have cut many people out of cars and trucks who were wearing seat belts, and are still alive to tell the tale. Having spent one evening walking along side a busy dual carraigeway, with a thermal imaging camera, looking for the head of a decapitated truck driver, who would have been alive today if he had been wearing a seat belt, I always wear mine, my choice. it takes ten seconds to put on, and may add 20 years to my life. Only time i will take it off, is when doing low speed reversing, and i feel naked without it!If you choose not to wear a seat belt, that is your right, but this is one health and safety law that is there for a good reason. I have heard drivers refuse to take a truck out for not having a radio working or maybe the air con is not cold enough, things that we can live without, but something that is there purely to save your life, becomes some kind of “macho” icon and so many choose to not to use it, or will continue to drive even though they know its not working properly’.
I will concede that there may be occasional instances where, by not wearing a seat belt, someone did survive, but these are far out weighed by the amount of times seat belts have saved lives.
i remember many years ago before seat belts were fitted in most trucks, being asked to take a baby volvo truck out in which the entire seat was loose, I refused to drive it, the TM started threatening me with all sorts of discipline, so I took the seat out of the truck, banged it down on his desk, and told him to drive the F****ing thing! I would do something similar today with a defective seat belt>
When i go to work ni the morning, I want to come home save that night to my wife. I don’t want some Plod having the terrible job of telling my wife that I won’t be home. i don’t want some poor sod of a firefighter having to put me into a body bag then go home to his wife and family and try to have a normal life. From experience, I know that every fatality will stay with that police officer, firefighter or paramedic for the rest of thier lives, so I will do anything i can to keep me safe.
In those 15 years did you ever see the results of what happens when a cab over truck hits another one in a big way compared to a conventional ■■.Probably not because unlike seatbelts we are’nt allowed to have the choice in using bonneted wagons because of the stupid regs.It seems that you’re being a bit selective in your safety ideas.
In answer to your question, Yes i have, seen head on’s between trucks, seen trucks driven into the back of another at speed, and seen what happens when a truck driver gets it wrong. i have seen them rolled over, and hit by a coach while broken down on the hard shoulder! I have dug soil away with my bare hands to free a truck drivers arm which was trapped under his cab when his truck rolled, if he had not been wearing a selt belt, that would probably have been his head or his torso. i spent more than an hour talking to a young girl who was trapped underneath a rolled coach while my colleagues fought to cut her out, successfully i am pleased to say, although two other young teens were killed that day who were not wearing seat belts on the coach, were thrown through the windows and were crushed.
Modern truck cabs are designed as safety shells, in the event of a head on, the cab together with the seats, will move backwards, allowing the main impact to be taken by the engine, gear box and chassis. just like cars trucks have crumple zones to absorb the impact, we no longer have wooden framed trucks, a truck cab is, realtively speaking, as safe as, if not safer than a modern car.
Every time we get into a truck or car. we are risking our lives, i choose to use a seatbelt because I believe it will make me safer, everyone is entitled to thier own opinion but there have to be laws otherwise we would have total anarchy, and these laws should protect the majority, even if it goes against the views of a small minority.
bubsy06:
Has anyone on here ever been fined for not wearing one in a truck?
yep i have 30 bucks lighter on the A303 near salisbury got a lecture too as i had my fridge strapped in the passenger seat but i wasn’t 
Thetaff:
bubsy06:
Has anyone on here ever been fined for not wearing one in a truck?yep i have 30 bucks lighter on the A303 near salisbury got a lecture too as i had my fridge strapped in the passenger seat but i wasn’t
Quality!!! We no where your priorities lay then 
FarnboroughBoy11:
Thetaff:
bubsy06:
Has anyone on here ever been fined for not wearing one in a truck?yep i have 30 bucks lighter on the A303 near salisbury got a lecture too as i had my fridge strapped in the passenger seat but i wasn’t
Cool!
FarnboroughBoy11:
Thetaff:
bubsy06:
Has anyone on here ever been fined for not wearing one in a truck?yep i have 30 bucks lighter on the A303 near salisbury got a lecture too as i had my fridge strapped in the passenger seat but i wasn’t
hell yeah it had carlsberg export in it!! 
The laws relating to the wearing of seat belts are clear, if fitted they must the worn.
The fun starts when you look at the rules relaing to what requires them and what doesn’t. The rules, like many other rules, ill thought out.
I own a coach that in a previous life was used to carry children to and from school. This required seat belts, 57 in total. The driver did not require one.
Another point relating to the transportation of children to school is, that if vehicle is solely for children it requires seat belts, but if the service is advertised and members of the public are able to travel on it then it does not. Operators therefore advertise the service to save themselves the cost of fitting belts.
Seatbelts save lives, that’s not propaganda or statistics, it’s a fact.
I have said that I don’t wear a seatbelt in the truck, but my circumstances are slightly different to most of yours, I very seldom sit in nose to tail 56mph convoys, many times I have the road all to myself & the probability of hitting something is non existent, however as soon as it starts snowing & sticking on the roads (which happened just last week) or foggy, the first thing I do is put my seatbelt on & turn the radio off, so maybe I’m not as stupid as I first appear (that’s a rhetorical question )
The fact that it irritates me is because I don’t wear it often, after a day or two of continuous use I probably wouldn’t even notice it until I tried to get out of the seat whilst stil wearing it
Carryfast, you rightly say that there’s less damage to the cab area on a conventional truck in a crash, but the driver will still hit the steering wheel or fly through the windscreen at the same speed as he/she would in a cabover, so the seatbelt is just as important.
There is a theory that as you are holding onto the steering wheel that you will not get flung forward in a crash, but even if you did manage to keep hold of the wheel it would snap your arms & then your face & chest would slam into the wheel, imagine running full pelt into a wall with your arms outstretched, most of us could run at around 10mph, now multiply that impact speed by 5 & it’s going to make a right mess of your arms, chest, face etc.
Seatbelt or no seatbelt, the best way to avoid injury is just don’t crash in the first place, that’s my plan anyway
newmercman:
Seatbelts save lives, that’s not propaganda or statistics, it’s a fact.I have said that I don’t wear a seatbelt in the truck, but my circumstances are slightly different to most of yours, I very seldom sit in nose to tail 56mph convoys, many times I have the road all to myself & the probability of hitting something is non existent, however as soon as it starts snowing & sticking on the roads (which happened just last week) or foggy, the first thing I do is put my seatbelt on & turn the radio off, so maybe I’m not as stupid as I first appear (that’s a rhetorical question
The fact that it irritates me is because I don’t wear it often, after a day or two of continuous use I probably wouldn’t even notice it until I tried to get out of the seat whilst stil wearing it
Carryfast, you rightly say that there’s less damage to the cab area on a conventional truck in a crash, but the driver will still hit the steering wheel or fly through the windscreen at the same speed as he/she would in a cabover, so the seatbelt is just as important.
There is a theory that as you are holding onto the steering wheel that you will not get flung forward in a crash, but even if you did manage to keep hold of the wheel it would snap your arms & then your face & chest would slam into the wheel, imagine running full pelt into a wall with your arms outstretched, most of us could run at around 10mph, now multiply that impact speed by 5 & it’s going to make a right mess of your arms, chest, face etc.
Seatbelt or no seatbelt, the best way to avoid injury is just don’t crash in the first place, that’s my plan anyway
I’m not saying don’t wear a seat belt what I’m saying is in many cases the seat belt is as much use as not bothering with it at all if you hit something hard enough with a cab over to need it.As I rightly say and every yank driver knows from the time he’s old enough to walk let alone drive a conventional suffers less damage to the cab in a big crash to the point where what would probably kill you with a euro type cab over woould be surviveable with a yank conventional.And I doubt that this driver was even wearing a seat belt.And by the way by the time the driver of that cab over could fly through the windscreen the windscreen would already have been replaced with the back end of the wagon he’s just hit and we all know what comes next.
truckerjon:
Carryfast:
truckerjon:
having spent 15 years as a firefighter, I’ve seen enough dead bodies to last my life time, and placed too many acident victims into body bags. don’t think in all that time I have seen anyone survive an accident simply because they were NOT wearing a seat belt. I have cut many people out of cars and trucks who were wearing seat belts, and are still alive to tell the tale. Having spent one evening walking along side a busy dual carraigeway, with a thermal imaging camera, looking for the head of a decapitated truck driver, who would have been alive today if he had been wearing a seat belt, I always wear mine, my choice. it takes ten seconds to put on, and may add 20 years to my life. Only time i will take it off, is when doing low speed reversing, and i feel naked without it!If you choose not to wear a seat belt, that is your right, but this is one health and safety law that is there for a good reason. I have heard drivers refuse to take a truck out for not having a radio working or maybe the air con is not cold enough, things that we can live without, but something that is there purely to save your life, becomes some kind of “macho” icon and so many choose to not to use it, or will continue to drive even though they know its not working properly’.
I will concede that there may be occasional instances where, by not wearing a seat belt, someone did survive, but these are far out weighed by the amount of times seat belts have saved lives.
i remember many years ago before seat belts were fitted in most trucks, being asked to take a baby volvo truck out in which the entire seat was loose, I refused to drive it, the TM started threatening me with all sorts of discipline, so I took the seat out of the truck, banged it down on his desk, and told him to drive the F****ing thing! I would do something similar today with a defective seat belt>
When i go to work ni the morning, I want to come home save that night to my wife. I don’t want some Plod having the terrible job of telling my wife that I won’t be home. i don’t want some poor sod of a firefighter having to put me into a body bag then go home to his wife and family and try to have a normal life. From experience, I know that every fatality will stay with that police officer, firefighter or paramedic for the rest of thier lives, so I will do anything i can to keep me safe.
In those 15 years did you ever see the results of what happens when a cab over truck hits another one in a big way compared to a conventional ■■.Probably not because unlike seatbelts we are’nt allowed to have the choice in using bonneted wagons because of the stupid regs.It seems that you’re being a bit selective in your safety ideas.
In answer to your question, Yes i have, seen head on’s between trucks, seen trucks driven into the back of another at speed, and seen what happens when a truck driver gets it wrong.
Modern truck cabs are designed as safety shells, in the event of a head on, the cab together with the seats, will move backwards, allowing the main impact to be taken by the engine, gear box and chassis. just like cars trucks have crumple zones to absorb the impact, we no longer have wooden framed trucks, a truck cab is, realtively speaking, as safe as, if not safer than a modern car.
I reckon you need to go to spec savers in that case.A cab over truck cab is actually less safe than a car if you rear end another truck at high speed because you’ve probably got around up to 30 tonnes or more behind you when you hit it and most cars have a bigger crumple zone than a cab over has in front of you.
I can understand people not wanting to wear a seatbelt purely because the law says you should but why deliberately do something that lessens your chances of surviving a crash? You wouldn’t disable your airbag before setting off would you?
A hell of a lot of people involved in serious RTC’s suffer traumatic brain injuries which can be literally life changing. I looked after a lot of these sort of people in a previous life working in a hospital. Many were young people, quite a few of which hadn’t wore their seatbelts, and either gone through the screen or hit something in their vehicles. These people can be in hospital for years sometimes. Many of them never eat or drink in the normal way again, and are fed though tubes in their stomach. Some never talk again, and some are completely paralysed. In fact sometimes their only choice in life is when to blink.
Sometimes that is the only thing they have control over.
Having seen what happens to these people makes you think and value what you have. Even if you’re pessimistic about your own chances in an accident do it for your wife/kids. In a bad crash let’s face it you can only hope for the best, but until you’ve seen it, you literally don’t know what you’re missing…
Put your seatbelt on
This isn’t a rant by the way, no-ones perfect