Thread: Seat belts

Just a couple or three comments on the last few pages of posts.

Not all safety improvements in workplaces are mandated by legislation or regulation. JD NSW's posts about the SMA in the 1950 mandating the use of seatbelts was not a result of Government Leg or Regs (given tha the SMHEC was a QANGO).

When the public purse funds public hospitals and the emergency services in Australia - the public purse has a right to regulate that cost to the public purse, irrespective of the infringement of personal rights and freedoms. After all we are a parliamentary democracy with a constitution that does not give us a bill of rights that guarantee freedom of personal choice. We are therefore only a free country as far as the government allows us to be from time to time. (Although we have the right to remove the Government at the next election.)

When I qualified for a Taxi Licence for the Sydney Transport District in 1988, taxi drivers while driving an on duty taxi were not required to wear a seat belt. This was for safety reasons which outweighed the risk of injury in an accident. It was considered a more significant risk of the driver being strangled by the belt in the event of a robbery than the risk of injury in an accident. However I believe that this exemption was removed when the plastic safety cages were mandated.

Diana

Originally Posted by Lotz-A-Landies

........
Not all safety improvements in workplaces are mandated by legislation or regulation. JD NSW's posts about the SMA in the 1950 mandating the use of seatbelts was not a result of Government Leg or Regs (given tha the SMHEC was a QANGO).
.......
.....

As an interesting aside on the general view on seat belts in the 1960s - I owned two ex-SMA Landrovers in the sixties, both directly ex the Authority via a dealer; in both cases the dealer (or possibly a wholesaler) had removed the seat belts as being detrimental to a sale, although the mounts were still there. Also, about 1966, I found it impossible to find a rental car with seat belts fitted, and the rental companies thought I was strange in the head to be asking for them.

John

My father was a medico and as a kid we always went to oran park, katoomba catalina circuit etc. He had seat belts fitted to all our old holdens front & back. (1960s). Try going to somewhere like Nepal where a seat belt is a click-clack backpack or dog collar type plastic fitting - I'm serious.....

Originally Posted by Chucaro

For me is a second nature imposed by law. Good idea ? yes, but I believe in the freedom of choice.
It is give me the s#@$ when you must use them but the "professional taxi drivers" do not have to use them.
For this reason and others i do not believe that should be compulsory for adults or at least do not get book if you forgot to wear them.
I know of one case of the driver burned to death because his mate was unable to remove him for the car.
The survivor, his mate can not wear seat belts after 25 years of the accident happens. Yes it is one case in a million but then again...freedom of choices.
I do not believe that we have to let a small group of senior public services do gooders run our liefs.

Just my humble opinion

I bet your mate had a seat belt on, thats why he wasn’t seriously hurt or kill in the accident and was at least still able to try and get his mate out.

Back in the early 70s a mate of mine bought an ex cops GTR Torana at the government auctions on a Friday morning and that afternoon, he came around to give me a ride in his new wheels.

We ended up down in Royal National Park and he was pushing it around a corner with an 15 MPH advisory sign, doing 45 MPH.

half way around the corner we hit some loose grave laying across the road.

We left the road and slammed into a 2m wide tree, hitting it with such force that my seat belt broke and I bounce of the windscreen.

I ended up with a broken ankle and collar bone but if I had not had the seat belt on, I would have gone through the windscreen and bounced off the tree.

I never go anywhere without warring a seat belt.

PS, my mate had nothing more than a few bruises, caused by the seat belt that saved his life.

Originally Posted by jbarracl

Weird thing is that if you add seatbelts to a series vehicle that was not fitted with them you actually have to have it all certified as a modification even though you are actually making the vehicle safer whether it complies with adrs or not.

I take it youve never seen the result of a seatbelt cutting into the body due to poor fitment of the anchor points (when the anchor points move away from the seats) or when they tear out and twist the body around the remaining points or the mount rips across the body on the way across.

Its for those reasons they have standards to comply to... Just because someone thinks something is safe enough or safer doesnt always make it so.