R4 prog - on seat belts: Are they good or bad?

[CotterPin]

Just been listening to a fascinating programme on Radio 4 about seat belts (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00mg2v6) which throws up lots of interesting thoughts. It is a part of a series called "Where did it all go right?" looking at initially controversial legislation that is now taken for granted.

It includes lots of the arguments that were put forward when the legislation was introduced - the anecdotes of "I knew a man that would have died if he had been wearing a seat belt." - the libetarian arguments - the arguments that it would not be possible to police (the police would be crashing their own cars in trying to observe others not wearing their seat belts). All of which have resonance today whether in the pros and cons of helmet wearing on bicycles or the use of mobile phones.

However the main thrust of the programme was that once upon a time the legal compulsion to wear a seat belt was seen as a bad thing. Now it is (almost) universally seen as a good thing.

Almost, because amongst the contributors was John Adams, author of Risk and a long time proponent of the argument that seat belts (amongst other safety gear) makes our roads more dangerous. The lady from ROSPA (I think said that there had been thousands of lives saved since the legislation was introduced. He argued that there the figure was zero if you took into consideration all those other people who had been killed on our roads as a result of drivers taking greater risk because they felt safer belted up in their vehicles.

If you do get a chance to listen to it, do listen out for Billy Saville (yes - that's right - Billy) who gets school children to pledge to wear their seatbelts at all times in the car and to pester their parents to belt up if they don't. In my opinion there was something ever so slightly spooky and not at all right about this.

 

[byegad]

Yes I heard it and the things that sprang to my mind were twofold:-

1. I have a horror of dying in a car, unable to get out and the car is on fire!
I had panic attacks when getting into a car for many years after the enforced wearing on seatbelts. I still check the belt thoroughly in a strange car.

2. Seatbelts are a lot better now than when they were introduced, more adjustable, pretensioned in a crash and with an inertia reel so they have some give, plus airbags which help protect your little pink body in the event of an impact. All of these weren't available when they were first forced on us!!

I feel that some people were killed by their belts in the early years and still some are killed each year, but in the main they have been a 'Good Thing,' saving far more than they kill.

To move this on to cycle helmets, I feel the evidence for helmet use is less clear and enforced use is much more likely to reduce cycling numbers than enforced seat belt use did in motor use. After all, I had the panic attacks but continued to drive, but if forced to wear a cycling helmet I may well give up the trike. New cyclist will be put off.

Reducing cycle numbers will increase the number of accidents per x hundred miles for the remaining cyclists and add to the obesity problems within the general population. Add to that the possibility of an increase in torsional brain injuries caused by helmets and I for one am not convinced that helmet use is a net benefit to cyclists.