Got pulled by the law last week on the A14 around Stowmarket just to check my tachos and defect book etc. However, the officer also asked me why I wasn’t wearing my seatbelt!!! I explained that it was broken as it wouldn’t retract properly to which he replied I can’t see any mention of it in your defect book. So after telling him I had put it in the book months ago and it had been ignored by the boss I was thinking 60 quid may be coming out of my wallet here. However, as everything was in order with my tachos he just told me to get onto my boss about getting it fixed as next time it would more than likely end up with a fine if I got pulled again. This actuallly restored a little bit of confidence in the police as he didn’t seem to want to throw his power about and give me a ticket! So the question is…who actually wears their seatbelt (if fitted) and what is your excuse if you don’t■■?
I don’t, can’t be arsed, always do in the car though. Suppose it’s just a habit, you’re always jumping in and out of a truck.
Yeah I know what ya mean mate, i’m always in and out of my cab aswell. Still think I was lucky and reckon 9 out of 10 cops would av ticketed me.
I must admit ive only been wearing mine since one of our drivers put his wagon on its side and ended up with a punctured lung and chipped bone in his shoulder and a couple of broken ribs when he ended up in the passenger footwell back in november last year.
It used to irritate me until i got a clip thing off ebay to stop it pulling too tight and gives you a bit of slack.
That is why the auto response should be. “I was wearing it, I took it off to get out of the cab”. Same for anything, once you admit to something you have done their work for them.
It is then down to them to prove that you weren’t, and they probably won’t be able to, or be prepared to claim that they can. I may or may not wear one in the truck, I may or may not have ever worn one in the truck. For some, It could be considered a pain in the backside wearing one.
Some people may even wrap them round the back of the seat and clip them in to turn off the daft alarm MAN (and I guess the others) have chosen to fit to the latest models 
. A lot seem to be of a similar opinion, though some have seen fit to try the lecture about what happens when you go through a windscreen. As if I hadn’t ever considered the prospect.
Seatbelts in a single occupancy vehicle should be the individuals choice (sitting behind someone in a vehicle brings with it a different responsibility), we waste far too much money in other parts of the NHS not related to motoring to start wibbling on about the added cost of scraping people off the road. Much like the army complaining they couldnt identify the body because it was blown into too many bits, and why didn’t he have some dogtags round his ankles as well.
Always buckle up in my car, been in enough car accidents to know it has saved me being seriously hurt at least twice… But ever since the seat belt was defected in the truck, once it was fixed I can’t get to grips with wearing it again. 
Yeah am same in the car but for some reason it just seems more restrictive in a wagon! Mine’s all fixed now anyway as I took one of an old seat we had in the yard and fitted it to my seat! Next time I wouldn’t be so lucky!
I wear mine all the time I’m driving. Feels really wierd if I don’t.
My question is, who is daft enough to drive in a vehicle they have defected and then admit it to a copper?!!!
How do you think the whole defect system works? It certainley doesn’t take the onus off you once you’ve put it in the book.
Well obviously i’m daft enough then. I defected it once and it got fixed but never actually worked as it should have done so defected it again and kept doing so and nothing ever got done. At the end of the day I can’t afford to refuse to go to work because of my seatbelt, I need to put food on the table and a roof over the heads if my mrs and little girl. Stupid or not, I dont know??
xfmatt:
Got pulled by the law last week on the A14 around Stowmarket just to check my tachos and defect book etc. However, the officer also asked me why I wasn’t wearing my seatbelt!!! I explained that it was broken as it wouldn’t retract properly to which he replied I can’t see any mention of it in your defect book. So after telling him I had put it in the book months ago and it had been ignored by the boss I was thinking 60 quid may be coming out of my wallet here. However, as everything was in order with my tachos he just told me to get onto my boss about getting it fixed as next time it would more than likely end up with a fine if I got pulled again. This actuallly restored a little bit of confidence in the police as he didn’t seem to want to throw his power about and give me a ticket! So the question is…who actually wears their seatbelt (if fitted) and what is your excuse if you don’t■■?
i can honestly say that i have never worn a seatbelt in a truck when there has not been one fitted 
xfmatt:
At the end of the day I can’t afford to refuse to go to work because of my seatbelt, I need to put food on the table and a roof over the heads if my mrs and little girl. Stupid or not, I dont know??
But you can take a gamble on shelling out £60 for not wearing a belt? I’m not sure how the belt not retracting properley stops you wearing it, but anyway i don’t wear mine much.I’m just upfront about it, i can’t be bothered. A lot of fat people don’t like wearing them, they also don’t like to say its because they’re fat. They usually make up an excuse. Anyway, the point i was making is that its not a good idea to drive with something you have defected as its a written admission of your guilt !!
Paul Gloria Meadows:
I wear mine all the time I’m driving. Feels really wierd if I don’t.
x2
always wear the belt in the car but not in the wagon, i know i should but i don’t fancy getting trapped behind the wheel, once saw half a brick boucing towards me
ended up stuck in my windsreen i ducked as it came at me, seatbelt might of restricted me, might not of but if iv’e got a chance to jump i’m gonna, i think it should
the drivers choice if you wear it or not, if your driving as you should, forever vigilant, there should be no or few problems, i know theres always the unexpected but
hey lifes a load of chances any way.
when my dad was driving back in the 70’s pulling a top heavy container as he went round a gradual bend ( within the speed limit ) the hole lot rolled over he was
thrown over to the otherside of the cab the lot went slamming straight into a tree, and a branch went right through the drivers seat, if he had a seatbelt on i would
of lost me dad at the age of 3, instead he came home early few scar’s and a broken finger.
I wear mine because its the law, its company policy, and any DHL manager with nothing better to do if he spots me without it can ring my depot up and grass on me. Oh and I don’t fancy the idea of headbutting the windscreen and back of the trailer in front of me if I should happen to run into the back of some traffic that was more stationary than it looked.
i posted a similar thing he other week,always wear it,as it’s saved my life a couple of times in the car not worth getting a £60 fine & points for something so stupid
watch this if you need a reason not to wear it
a lad i used to work with rolled his wagon at the r/bout off junct 24 on m62,ainley top,it went to over on the off side & he wasn’t wearing a belt,he was lucky not to have been thrown threw out of the window,he just managed to hang on to the steering wheel.he was still badly battered about & he hardly ever drove again,his ■■■ fell out big time.
Mike-C:
xfmatt:
At the end of the day I can’t afford to refuse to go to work because of my seatbelt, I need to put food on the table and a roof over the heads if my mrs and little girl. Stupid or not, I dont know??But you can take a gamble on shelling out £60 for not wearing a belt? I’m not sure how the belt not retracting properley stops you wearing it, but anyway i don’t wear mine much.I’m just upfront about it, i can’t be bothered. A lot of fat people don’t like wearing them, they also don’t like to say its because they’re fat. They usually make up an excuse. Anyway, the point i was making is that its not a good idea to drive with something you have defected as its a written admission of your guilt !!
Hopefully you have good life cover for your wife and little girl if it goes ■■■■ up and you headbutt the windscreen a bit too hard 
.
And just think how much your payout will be cut by due to contributory negligence if you get injured and can’t work again to put food on the table, all for the sake of a seatbelt, but if you think it’s worth that risk go for it !
I’d be happy to go with mike’s suggestion and pod out £60 and take 3 points for fun if that was the worst that could happen, but is it ?
Just a thought 
i was involved in an accident a few years ago…an artic drove over my car almost killing me…but not quite due to my seatbelt…my passenger hit the screen and knocked his teeth out…his payout(from the looney artic drivers insurance)was reduced by 50% because he was not wearing a seat belt(which would have stopped him hitting the screen.)
if i was asked to take a truck out with a faulty seatbelt i would refuse.
I feel safer with it on, especially with the amount of kamakazi drivers on the road, both professional and joe bloggs. Always a chance I could pile it aswel and I would prefer to be strapped in especially with weighing not far off 44t
Always wear one it could save your life f f s.