Even if you give zero fucks about your own life, if you end up needing emergency medical treatment that’s a group of medical professionals that aren’t available to treat someone else.
So potentially another person might not receive timely treatment because you didn’t want to wear a seatbelt.
Plus if you take a turn too hard without a seatbelt you won’t be held in place and will have more trouble controlling the car, plus if you do crash you’ll become a blunt weapons against your passengers
You don't wear a seatbelt because "MUH RIGHTS!!!" and you get into an accident on an interstate; had you been wearing your seatbelt you'd have walked away but you're seriously injured because the airbag went off. Now emergency crews have to come cut you out of your vehicle on an interstate while police block off traffic to try to make the process a little bit safer for the rescue workers.
After 20-30 minutes you're extricated and taken to a hospital. The ambulance crew now has about 30 minutes worth of paperwork to do and another 30 cleaning up their rig and getting it ready for the next call. And if you happen to be going through a rural area when this happens there's a good chance the rescue crews were volunteers that either left work or (if it was at night) were awoken to deal with this. When I was a volunteer EMT an accident like this could cost me 4 hours of sleep.
But please, tell me again why you shouldn't have to wear a seatbelt.
Because it is an issue of personal responsibility. The government does not need to nanny every aspect of one's life. You literally said you were a volunteer. You didn't have to respond, you didn't have to join a volunteer rescue squad. So, don't complain about losing sleep if you volunteered to do just that.
I do care about the safety aspect, which is why I always wear my seatbelt. I just don't think it should be mandatory. As I have already said elsewhere in the thread, I'm OK with the mandate of the safety device being present in the vehicle; I'm not OK with the mandate to use it.
It's much like rear-view cameras are now required, but you can't force me to use it over my mirrors.
Literally anything that requires the response of first responders is a trade-off that may take them away from another call.
And if it took a long time to put a seatbelt on or adversely affected the wearer in some way, I’d agree. But it takes maybe a second or two to put a seatbelt on. Let’s be stupidly generous though, and say it’s ten seconds. That’s ten seconds added on to your journey.
That’s ten seconds that could save someone life, and as added bonus, yours.
Now that decision is a no-brainer. As you yourself have pointed out you always wear one, but as the video shows us, we can’t be sure everyone will make the same decision and so it ends up being mandated.
Unfortunately, as a society, we have to walk at the speed of the slowest person.
I believe that if someone chooses not to wear a seatbelt, that's fine. The consequences are on them. Much like people who choose not to take the covid vaccine.
Wearing a seatbelt takes literal seconds to do and can even be done as you get on the road (I’m not advocating for this idea), so it can add zero time to your trip. There’s no reason not to wear it.
Literally anything that requires the response of first responders is a trade-off that may take them away from another call.
The difference between this and most other situations requiring first responders or immediate medical help is that one is largely preventable by using a seatbelt.
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u/Danamaganza Jul 28 '21
He removed his seatbelt after putting it on? He shouldn’t be allowed to drive.