40 Glorious Years Of Road Totalitarianism

[Warren t claim]

I was meaning to start this thread a few weeks ago but work got in the way.

It is now 40 years since it became compulsory to wear seat belts in the front of a car in the UK.

I was only 13 at the time so obviously wasn't driving back then but are there a few members here older than me who remember having to change their driving habits?

[Warren t claim]

I must admit that it's strange that due to spending the last two decades driving taxis and trucks, it's pretty unusual that I've driven well over a million miles without wearing a seat belt.

[mercrocker]

I passed my test in '77 so remember the days pre-compulsion. I was driving pre-65 stuff anyway so it didn't really start affecting me until I bought my first modern around 1990. Got a few tickets early on because I just couldn't be arsed to wear one - the last such "offence" was at the wheel of my Fiesta about 5 years ago.

[Hooli]

I got a ticket for no seatbelt after a copper watched me take my seatbelt off. He was being a cunt as I'd pointed out he was wrong about what he saw. The reason I hit a kerb was because a car cut me up a treat and he didn't see it despite being on that side of the van I was driving.

[SiC]

I can't drive without a seatbelt. Feels completely unnatural and unpleasant.

I've literally only ever known wearing a seatbelt in a car.

The rental Frogeye I had in Jersey was the first ever time I have driven a car without one for any distance.

[Warren t claim]

I can't drive without a seatbelt. Feels completely unnatural and unpleasant.

I've literally only ever known wearing a seatbelt in a car.

The rental Frogeye I had in Jersey was the first ever time I have driven a car without one for any distance.

Strangely it's the opposite for me.

[NorfolkNWeigh]

I remember it meant I could drive my Zodiac faster because the static belts held me in place, not exactly a major contribution to road safety.
A couple of years later as an insufferable yuppie twat , I used to have a “ Doctor on Call” sticker to get out of parking tickets, on my company XR3i. This got me out of a fine for no seatbelt once when the copper saw it and said “ I suppose you’ll just write yourself a medical exemption”

[Warren t claim]

I remember that until about 2004 it was considered a secondary law and something that you'd never be stopped for.

[Jerzy Woking]

My mate was killed in 1975 when he went through the windscreen of his dad's car. Always wore a belt after that when a passenger, and as a driver when I started driving the following year.

I am still happy to ride my scooter here wearing an open face helmet, shorts and tee-shirt, so not adverse to risk

[AMCrebel]

Old enough to remember the pre-compulsion days - our first family car was an Austin A30 - as far as I know not fitted with belts, but as soon as we had cars fitted with them, my parents religiously wore them (not us kids in the back though of course). In my recollection it was one of those things that your family did or didn't do - my best mate's Dad was a lorry driver and hated seatbelts - my mate used go on and on about how they (static belts in those days) were more dangerous as he couldn't reach stuff properly and then there were the stories of people who hit trees and the tree fell on the car but they dodged death by being thrown out of the car and would have died of they were wearing one. It was a bit like another mate of mine - his Dad used to casually chuck litter out of any vehicle he was driving - a complete no-no in our household, but his lad has grown up with the same habit.