Long on emotion, short on sense

I hate seat belt laws.
Do seat belts, in the big picture, save lives? Yes.
Do they always save lives? No.
Are they sometimes actually harmful? Yes.

But people are emotional, and it skews their view.
If you are in an accident and you were wearing your seatbelt, chances are you were thankful you were wearing your seatbelt, or “it could have been worse”.
If you are in an accident and not wearing your seatbelt, chances are you are thankful it wasn’t worse, and vow to wear your seatbelt.
If somebody dies in an accident while wearing a seatbelt, nobody says or thinks anything regarding seatbelts at all.
If somebody dies in an accident while not wearing a seatbelt, people go way overboard exclaiming the importance of wearing your seatbelt.

Instead of holding a vigil to promote seatbelt safety, why not hold a vigil to promote safe driving habits? The best way to avoid dying in an accident is to avoid the accident altogether….

For the record, I’ve never been wearing a seatbelt during any of the accidents I’ve ever been in, including two totaled vehicles (one side impact and one head-on). The only serious injury I’ve sustained was a fractured rib or two, and that was in a side-impact collision where wearing the seatbelt would have caused more damage to me than not wearing it.

I’m also not advocating that you shouldn’t wear a seatbelt. I’m just saying that people overstate the importance of it, and it shouldn’t be mandated by the government.