Are people less likely to be in an accident if they are wearing a seat belt?

Answer 1

AnswerNot less likely to be in an accident unless they are prone to moving about the vehicle while they're driving.For instance trying to maintain control of the vehicle and get in the back seat at the same time. Seat belts won't prevent stupidity from happening only protect the possible stupid person from getting ejected through the window of the vehicle as it careens wildly across the median into oncoming traffic .Only coming to rest after hitting a transfer truck head-on and bouncing off into a 4 wheel tire-screeching skid side-swiping another vehicle in the process and the continuing over the embankment where upon it flips and bursts into flames.

Now if you had your seat belt on this would not have happened because you would not be able to get into the rear seat and you would've known it so you probably wouldn't have tried to.However now you are trapped upside down inside a burning vehicle.

I'm sorry what was I talking about again?

Answer 2

In practice, I don't think you would a lot of difference. Nobody wants to crash. However, you can easily see reasons why there might be a difference between seatbelt-wearing and non-seatbelt wearing drivers.

For example, people who don't wear seatbelts might try harder to avoid hitting something because they know the result is going to be painful. Have you ever noticed how Volvo drivers don't seem to care what they hit? Seatbelts could be kind of like that.

However, if someone wears a seatbelt, it at least means they are thinking of road safety and the possibility of injury and are taking steps to reduce it. Possibly they are better educated about safe driving and are generally better drivers because of this.

In World War I, the British air-force initially refused to give their pilots parachutes because they thought people would just jump out at the first sign of damage instead of fighting on and perhaps saving their expensive planes or downing the enemy. Unfortunately, this also meant a lot of pilots died needlessly.

I don't think that drivers blindly trust seatbelts to save them, and therefore will try just as hard to avoid accidents. For this and the reasons above, I think they may be involved in fewer accidents than people who don't wear seatbelts.