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Actually, I have developed a nice technique to make sure people in rear belt up. Esp if I'm sitting up front or driving. I'm simply tell them to belt up, as in an event of a crash, you'll plow behind me and rendering me wearing seat belt useless. You can sit on the roof for all I care ( not that I recommend that), but if you are sitting on the seat, just belt up. After 2-3 times, people start wearing belt just to shut me off.

Also, with something holding you to the seat, your arms won't get hurt holding the handle if the road has too many curves.

Good technique, have tried the same. But some people are adamant, they won't budge but I try anyway.

Didn't understand this, mate.

Come now gentlemen. It's going too deep into personalities over here.

We all wear seat belts; both front and back seat passengers.

And we all say a little prayer when starting out. So that the gods stay alert and watch over you.

And keep the other drivers also awake!

I've often wished for fighter plane like ejection seats. And a Bond style missile launcher behind the number plates.

Naturally that'll mean a Bond heroine is needed in the next seat.

Let's move on shall we?

He means if you don't wear a belt and go on say Yercaud or Tirupathi ghats, the G forces will move you left and right.

A driver can hold the steering.

Passengers would grab the roof handles.

Well, that is one way of putting it - That w/o seat belts you'd be jolted around into a safe posture.

May I post a counter contrarian point? In such cases, the tendency is for passengers to fall out of the window if it's open.

If it's closed, then he's still going out via the window leaving a Tom & Jerry style outline in the glass.

I've actually seen one accident like this.

It happenned in front of me.

A Scorpio was coming towards me at high speed on Kanakpura road. He was about half km away. This incident was 10 years ago.

It is a single lane and very bumpy road with small but quick turns. The driver tried to avoid a cycling rustic.

The vehicle was on a flat but curvy road.

The drivers initial two swerves seemed controlled. I thought he'd recover its integrity.

Then it went haywire. The front wheel sort of buckled and this was enough to topple the Scorpio. It rolled over a couple of times.

One passenger flew out of the rear window and was crushed by the same vehicle.

We stopped and surveyed the scene. The driver was okay. The flier was not. Another passenger inside had a torn scalp.

I was with friends. I left them right there.

I told them to call ambulances and so on.

We rested the most likely dead person in the rear seat of my car. I had a swift then. I put the one with the torn scalp in my passenger seat. All buckled up.

Then I drove like I'd never done to hit kanakpura town. We reached a hospital and the doc confirmed that the one in the rear seat is no more. They merely tied the scalp of the other one with some medical gauze. And suggested we go to Blr.

A couple of single star cops showed up. By then ambulances from town reached. They put them all in it and went to Blr.

I went back, picked up my friends and went home.

It was a crazy day. My hands were shivering by the time I reached home. I think the adrenaline was wearing out by then.

Basically FORTified, IMO other than your own absolute self and senses, nothing else can ever be within your control or be predictable.

About 20-25yrs back, I am not really sure if seat belts were even a part of safety equipment on Indian cars. This is no longer considered a premium offering and with the way the things are going in India today, features like ABS, EBD, Airbags, etc are getting standardised across all variants by manufacturers clap:

The point I am trying to make here is similar to what ecenandu has made and that is:

Being Safe than Sorry :thumbs up


Wearing a helmet while riding a bike does not make the rider immortal. The irony of this is really a pity in India, where government had to introduce laws/fines/penalties for the commuters to follow this simple safety exercise.

W.r.t the mishap that involved the Verna and the loss of teenage lives, if these imps were really drunk while on the joyride, no amount of safety kit, build quality or even luck could have changed the outcome.


P.S - Personally, wearing a seat belt while driving a car and a helmet while riding a bike is beyond the avoidance of any traffic violations.

Indeed.

You cannot choose your accident - that's a huge uncertainty on our roads. You can choose your prevention - and wearing seat belts is the best injury prevention mechanism, that works in the most cases. Is it perfect for every single accident? NO!
Is it WAY better in most cases? YES!
In 9/10 (or pick your number) incidents you are way better off wearing seat belts rather than not wearing seat belts.

Yes. I agree with you and I do follow it in my car.
People crib but if they want to be in my car, they better buckle up.

In fact, rear seat guys not belting up is more dangerous. They will come flying and hit the front seat guy who is belted up but still ends up injured.
Especially on highways, where speeds can be a notch up, I ask my kids in the third row also to buckle up.

As for me, I feel like I am driving NAKED, till I buckle up :D

Yes, you are right its the older Verna, I got it confirmed from a very close circle related to this accident.

You would pull your hair for this; initially there were 9 occupants in the car, all of them PUC students. They had bunked the class and had a booze party and decided to go for a drive. The driver, took his father's car (believed to be taken without his knowledge), on the way, one of them got down stating the car was cramped, lucky!

The shocker, most of these boys were single child to there parents!

Thanks all. This is what I meant: Wearing seat belts is necessary but NOT sufficient condition to walk out of accidents scratch-free.
Seat belts can only save you to a certain degree of impact, as long as the cabin remained in shape.
Once impact becomes too huge and cabin itself is crushed, there is nothing much that the seat belts can do.

At the end of it - Take all the precautions that you can, drive safe and be alert. If it still happens, you can atleast blame it on luck [or lack of it].

Its not a technique, its a fact and the main reason for recommending to avoid any loose items in a car.

Just a thought, a simple technique can be a beep mechanism to indicate the seat belt warning (even a manually operated fake one is also enough). Hope the passengers wont resort to just engage the belt in the lock w/o wearing them.:)

I have seen many a cabbies in Bangalore do this, i.e. engage the seat belt but then sort of sit on the buckled belt. When they see cops, they wear it (with a one hand action similar to pulling on a t-shirt).

The adage "Fools are ingenious" is so true. Unless the person decides he/ she wants to, there are no fool-proof ways of enforcing passive safety mechanisms.

Fyi

http://m.timesofindia.com/india/Road...w/50212341.cms

Lol, I'm a regular in those 12 spots mentioned in TN. Kanchipuram stretch is not only dangerous but it'll damage your vehicle's suspension pretty bad.
Vilupuram NH45 stretch is amazing but, there'll be so many intersections & deadly curves where people jump out of the median.

The stretch mentioned in Salem (Thannithotty to Deevatipatty) is the place where I grew up. Thannithotty is the place that comes just before Salem toll gate while coming down from Omalur. (Marked in black cross in the image)Even one of our fellow BHP'ian met with an accident there.

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travel...e-yercaud.html



I myself have seen around 10 fatalities in that very particular place. The roads are so inviting & with N number of intersections from service lane, the numbers mentioned are just awful.
Though it all boils down to one individual person's poor road manners, I strongly believe that these can be avoided if the government takes initiative to educate people living close NH roads.

Many people living in the villages have no road sense at all. They randomly cross the road, they jump across the median with their bikes, they start crossing the intersection even after you flash the lamps N number of times!


Day before, when I was returning to Chennai via NH4, I was doing about 110kmph on a bridge near vellore. I had a clear view of the road ahead, there was an ertiga who was about to overtake me, everything looked fine until a moron on a bike with his elderly mom riding pillion decided to jump the median & ride perpendicularly across the road to reach the shoulder without paying heed to the speeding cars. Fortunately I had ABS & EBD that saved them from the mortuary.
The ertiga guy braked hard , I could hear the tyre screech twice! Quick thinking by him prevented a nasty collision. Thought of pulling over & giving a piece of my temperament to the splendor guy but, let better sense prevailed and drove off.
The road is filled with idiots!