Wearing a seat belt and wearing a helmet is just one of those things that certain people will have to learn the hard way. To me, a seatbelt is something so small a distraction/bother but can greatly save your life. I've ridden in cars where my friends think they are too cool for seatbelts. I was in an accident and i can tell you that the seatbelt saved my life. But, like i said, certain people will only learn when their head is either bashed on their windshield or skinned on the asphalt.

 

Your right. if the gov has to pay for your medical then guess who is actually paying? Tax payers which means all of us will pay for your dumb mistake.

If i were to die cause i wasnt wearing my seatbelt (me being military) the government would do all they could to keep me alive so lets say that costs 100Gs. After that i end up dying 2 days later. My wife now gets 400Gs as well as my paychecks for 12 months.

So my mistake of not wearing a seatbelt cost all of you 540Gs. Now multiply this by just how many military and civilian people dont wanna wear it and die each year and BAM. Thats alot of dough for a silly mistake.

So if the gov tickets people for not wearing a seatbelt its so they can get a little bit more money out of you before the odds eventually catch up and they pay alot more than the 3 tickets you got.

 

Do you make your passenger's wear a seatbelt when they are in the car with you? Have you ever seen the pictures of passenger's in the back seats not wearing they're seatbelt, and killing the person in front of them? (Try to imagine someone's teeth getting rammed into the back of your skull, killing both you and the other person.. All of this in a situation were wearing your seatbelt would have saved both of your lives.)

I was just briefed on all of this last weekend before Memorial day, so it's still a little fresh... Personally, not a way that I want to go out.

 

Hope you don't learn the truth about this the hard way. You should look into what is called a 'Line of Duty investigation'. Basically, if it is found that you aren't wearing the proper safety equipment either on a bike (all the req'd gear) or in a car (seatbelt), the USG DOES NOT HAVE TO PAY YOUR MEDICAL BILLS!!!

This HAS happened. It is up to your command on whether to start the investigation or not. If you get in an accident on your bike and you are wearing everything but say..your boots...they probably won't do one. But if you get in an accident and you are not wearing your helmet...yeah, they are going to do one and you will be on the hook for ALL of your bills.

The life insurance does not work the same way though. You die, they pay.

 

Sorry buddy. They military will always pay your medical bills. Line of duty investigations are to decided if you will recieve your benifits if your forced to retire due to your injurys. As for a example. There is a female in our squadron who rode someones motorcycle. Only gear was a helmet. No MSF class, no endorsment and no safety brief. She crashed and broke her back and some other bones. She had a line of duty investigation which revealed all the facts. She had all her bills paid for but she will be forced to retire and she will not get 100% disability. She will only recieve a small portion.

Seat belts are the same way. They will pay they just wont give you benifits.

 

The decision on what to do about the results of the investigation is not set in stone. Young sailor here in norfolk got to pay his own medical bills a few montgs back and all of us had to have training on it.

 

I always, always wear my seat belt. Some always do so in the front seat, but never in the backseat. I'll wear it regardless, even if it's a block away.

(I don't own a car but if I did, every passenger would have to buckle up before going anywhere. Consider it to be the ignition. )

 

Good policy.

1) I don't want a rear seat passenger embedding their teeth into my skull if we have a head-on.

2) Here in NZ it is the drivers responsibility to ensure everybody has a belt on. Get pulled up at a random check point and one of the passengers doesn't have a belt on - you get the fine.

To be fair its been compulsory here for so long (20 + years?) you don't even think about it anymore.

And my old Subaru is pre air-bag so I'll take all the help I can get thanks.

 

Wow, leave it to a sport bike forum to make me feel reckless. I've been thinking about it and trying to figure out exactly when/why I quit wearing my seatbelt regularly. I came up with three stupid reasons.

I've never been in any kind of real accident. I've been rear ended twice at very low speeds but that's about it. I also drive a lifted 3/4ton truck so maybe I got the whole "invincible" mentality going on.

5 years ago I started working full time at the farm. The dump truck I drive doesn't even have seatbelts so I guess I got use to driving without one so I don't get that "naked" feeling anymore.

On top of that I bought a new truck right around that time that had a really nice interior that I wanted to keep nice. Well, working at a dairy farm isn't exactly clean and I often have to drive home completely covered in liquid cow ****. I don't want to smear crap all over the seatbelts so I just don't wear it. Lame excuses, I know, but .

A couple months ago I was riding shotgun in my friends car. He had a belt on and I didn't. Sure enough we get pulled over and the cop reams me a new one and threatened to give both of us tickets (My buddy was PISSED ) It wouldn't have been a big deal but the cop was a real a-hole about it. I've run into that same cop a few times and he's always hassling me about stupid stuff (like loitering in a McDonalds parking lot). So guess what...It made me want to wear a belt even less just out of spite. I know, I'm a real genius.

Now I'm just rambling. Sorry, I'm waiting for the cable guy to show up and I'm really bored.