Seat Belts

[PC66]

Re: Seat Belts

Even if the vehicle excise duty did still pay solely for road upkeep, I'm sure that the same car drivers who try to use the "I pay road tax" argument against cyclists wouldn't be too happy if run off the road by a 40-tonner whose driver then tried to argue "I pay more road tax than you so I have priority over you."

"Entertainments may be taxed; public houses may be taxed… and the yield devoted to the general revenue. But motorists are to be privileged for all time to have the tax on motors devoted to roads? This is an outrage upon… common sense."

I'd say it was also an outrage upon common sense (not to mention fairplay) that a tax introduced under the auspices of it being to pay for one particular thing is hijacked to pay for all manner of other things. But of course, when it comes to taxation common sense and fairplay have never really figured into the equation at all, since the government is simply out to get as much tax as it thinks it can get away with by any means possible.

I regard taxation as nothing more than a legalized extortion racket run by the government: "Pay what we tell you or else!"

[80sChav]

Re: Seat Belts

I recall the era well Mark yes. I am unsure of the exact precise time, but I am seeming to think that was it the middle of the 1980s - around 1986 (if I'm thinking right), though I'm unsure as I'd said that Seatbelt's became a legal requirement?

I can recall as well, that for years after - people still never wore Seatbelts - almost like the illegal use of a Mobile was before more recent clampdown's. How strange it is I think, how things like so was taken for granted, to not wear Seatbelts for yonks then years then years later there are people who might never know it was illegal. How times change indeed.

[PC66]

Re: Seat Belts

I am seeming to think that was it the middle of the 1980s - around 1986 (if I'm thinking right), though I'm unsure as I'd said that Seatbelt's became a legal requirement?

It was January 1983 that use of front belts became compulsory in the U.K., but even in some official circles at the time there were still questions about effectiveness and this initial legislation was for a 3-year trial period only. The government even commissioned an independent study, the results of which became known as the Isles Report. The conclusion in the report was that the trial imposition of the new law had not had any significant effect in reducing injuries and fatalities which could be attributed to seat belts. But by that time, the government had obviously decided that it was going to make the new law permanent whatever the result, the results of the report were ignored, and the law made permanent in 1986. And, of course, the Isles Report does not get any sort of mention in any potted versions of seat belt history published by the government since then.

Compulsory use of rear seat belts was imposed for children under 14 in 1989, followed by extension to all rear seat passengers in 1991.

[darren]

Re: Seat Belts

i remember it well being in the car when there
where no seatbelts.

i remember even when they became law to use i still never did
it seems strange there was a time when cars didnt have seatbelts.

and really they have only been around for like 30 yrs, when u consider how long cars lorries have been around.

I recall the era well Mark yes. I am unsure of the exact precise time, but I am seeming to think that was it the middle of the 1980s - around 1986 (if I'm thinking right), though I'm unsure as I'd said that Seatbelt's became a legal requirement?

I can recall as well, that for years after - people still never wore Seatbelts - almost like the illegal use of a Mobile was before more recent clampdown's. How strange it is I think, how things like so was taken for granted, to not wear Seatbelts for yonks then years then years later there are people who might never know it was illegal. How times change indeed.

[Twocky61]

Re: Seat Belts

I remember travelling inside the caravan being towed which might have been illegal then as it is today. Also on a few ocassions around the age of ten I travelled curled up in the boot But that was to cross the ferry so Dad didn't have to pay for me as they charged the toll by how many people were in the car

[Arran]

Re: Seat Belts

No kids over the age of 5 seemed to use child seats in cars back in the 1990s. If they were too short for the seat belt to hold them they sat on a cushion.

The law states that kids must sit on an approved child car seat until they are 135 cm in height or 12 years old - which ever they reach first. When I was in Y7 at secondary school it was unimaginable that any kids in the same year would use a child car seat even if they were under 135 cm tall. It was quite embarrassing when I was at primary school for an 8 year old to use a child car seat in a similar way to riding a bike with stabilisers. They were for kids in nursery class.

[darren]

Re: Seat Belts

Even going to secondary school in my dads car i rarely wore a seat belt cause they where so tight.
And sometimes it took ages unclipping them.

A car seat until there 12 etc wow.
Ill bet most times they reached the height limit before they reached the age limit.
12 yrs old wow.

I was never in a car seat ever.

[staffslad]

Re: Seat Belts

I used to travel regularly in the boot area of my dad's Hillman Husky estate in the late 60s/early 70s, even if there was no-one on the back seat I loved to sit in the boot. Remember back then that even if a car had front seat belts, most were static belts rather than the inertia-reel type that are fitted now. My dad's Ford Corsair had inertia-reel belts in the front but that was uncommon at the time--my uncle's Vauxhall Viva had static belts, and no matter the type of belt, very few people used them. Even when I was learning to drive in the late 70s, neither I nor my instructor used belts.

I have some relatives living in the Philippines. We visited them a few years ago and, after having had to belt up in cars over here for so many years, it was very strange and slightly disconcerting to see no-one bothering with belts.

[big kid]

Re: Seat Belts

yeah, i remember not having to wear a seatbelt when i was a kid. when i passed my test in 1987, i bought a '59 ford prefect and you didn't need seatbelts in it.

[darren]

Re: Seat Belts

i dont like the sound of static seat belts.

My first memory of seat belts where in the mid to late eighties when my dad took me to school.

In some ways being in the boot might have been safer than in the front with no belts.

i used to travel regularly in the boot area of my dad's hillman husky estate in the late 60s/early 70s, even if there was no-one on the back seat i loved to sit in the boot. Remember back then that even if a car had front seat belts, most were static belts rather than the inertia-reel type that are fitted now. My dad's ford corsair had inertia-reel belts in the front but that was uncommon at the time--my uncle's vauxhall viva had static belts, and no matter the type of belt, very few people used them. Even when i was learning to drive in the late 70s, neither i nor my instructor used belts.

I have some relatives living in the philippines. We visited them a few years ago and, after having had to belt up in cars over here for so many years, it was very strange and slightly disconcerting to see no-one bothering with belts.

[big kid]

Re: Seat Belts

i remember driving about in my dads car without wearing a seat belt. when i passed my driving test. the first car i bought was a '59 ford prefect and that didn't have them fitted.

[Mulletino]

Re: Seat Belts

We'd all pile into the car as kids, on family holidays one of us would have to sit on mum's lap in the front while the rest squashed in the back.

We went to Vange Zoo once in the 70s in my Dad's Morris Minor (which he's finally getting running again this week!) four adults and five kids. We all piled out when we got there like clowns out of a clown car and the guy at the gate said "if i hadn't have seen it, i wouldn't have believed it!".
All of the cars we had growing up had no seat belts, be it piling into the rear of an Anglia Estate, the time we had an old Army Land Rover and us kids had to sit in the canvas covered back with no seat belts, when it rained we had to balance in the middle so as not to touch the canvas and make it leak. Often used to ride on the back of my dad's flat bed long wheel base truck to his firm with all the scrap metal and vessels.
He had company vans a lot which had carpet in, so us kids always travelled laying down in the back of that. At one point my uncle had an old yank car with those seats outside in the boot, we'd go for rides in that.

Good days.