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You wear your seat belt, right? That's obviously a risk you already take seriously, so I'd not take it for a bound on tolerance for risk.


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Do you also avoid seat belts because there are unlikely accident scenarios where they do harm?

I don't wear a seatbelt because I'm stereotyping the driver of my car as a dangerous driver though, nor am I stereotyping other drivers either.

Risk is the combination of chance of occurence with effect. If the effect is large then a tiny chance is worth making active protections against.

Given what we've seen in the past few years and how such incidents appear to be on the increase, the chance doesn't even seem that tiny.


Just because seatbelts are "truly protective" that doesn't mean that getting into accidents is risk free.

You think not wearing a seatbelt only endangers you?

it's up to my passengers then - their personal decision - take the risk without me wearing the seatbelt, not riding with me or convince me to put on one.

Refusing to wear a seatbelt does, in fact, present a risk to others because in a crash, you can become a lethal projectile should you fly and hit someone else.

It's better to not get into a car wreck, but I still wear my seatbelt.

See, now you're using the seat belt as an excuse to not avoid other risks.

Avoiding a car crash in the first place would definitely be the better alternative.


There are always tradeoffs. In this case, risk compensation might lead a seat-belted driver to drive in more reckless fashion.

Do you put your seatbelt on when driving? I do. Not because I expect to be in a situation where I'll need it, but because if said extremely rare situation happens, I'll be happy I did; the consequence:probability ratio is just too big, as my life (and that of my family if I had one) has a value of 8.

Having a weapon on yourself in preparing for the worst case scenario. "Hope for the best and plan for the worst", you know.


Driving, even with a seatbelt, strikes me as an irresponsibly risky activity.

Even a minor collision can cause significant neurological dysfunction, and most seat belts do nothing to protect against the sub-lethal variety.


Seatbelts are risk mitigation, but I guess you still wouldn't be happy if someone crashed their car into yours.

Do you put on a seat belt when you're at a car dealer and try sitting in a car? You never know, a car might come through the window and hit the car you're in and you'll be glad you had that seat belt on.

Most people won't though, they see the risk for what it is, too low for them to worry about. It is, of course, up to you.


Why should I wear a seatbelt when I'm not planing on getting into a car accident?

Wearing a seat belt, or attaching a safety rope isn't some subjective gray area of risk though.

"If you're driving so dangerously that you feel the need to wear a seat belt, you shouldn't be driving a car."

That doesn't mean it can happen at X% probability to everyone. Seatbelts on modern cars, of course, have warning lights and beepers. I never put my belt on before turning the car on, but I never take a trip without it. It's not really a matter of memory, because if I found myself driving without a seatbelt and no memory of how it happened, I'm still conditioned to feel naked.

I wonder if there are really a lot of people who are sensitive to the risk of a fine but not the risk of injury or death.


"less likely" risks are still worth protecting against!

I still put my seat-belt on, even though there's an airbag in the car.


Do we need seatbelts? You can also just keep out of accidents.
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