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It’s difficult to explain this to the youths of today, but there was a time not that long ago when nobody wore seatbelts and kids weren’t in the latest car seat / booster seat technology until they were almost teenagers. We all just kind of sat there, unrestrained, able to move around, to lie down, or to fight our siblings. The whole idea of ticketing for failure to wear a seatbelt was pretty controversial. Actually, ticketing for drinking a beer while driving was controversial (the argument being that you shouldn’t be pulled over until your driving reflected the need.)
“Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.” – Benjamin Franklin
The country I grew up in no longer exists. That’s okay. I don’t really consider driving without a seatbelt an “essential liberty.” I generally prefer that people not drink beer while driving and that they wear seatbelts (if the public is responsible for footing the bill of your accident, the public should have some say in how you drive.) But I do sometimes wonder if giving the reasonable-seeming seatbelt inch led to the taking of a thought-policing mile a generation later.
Either way, the pressure campaign to buckle up definitely worked. (via wiki)
Seat belt usage by year
The following list shows the national percentage of vehicle occupants using seat belts between 1983 and 2017:
Historical seat belt use in the United States
1983-2017Year % Year % Year % 2017 89.7 2005 82 1993 66 2016 90.1 2004 80 1992 62 2015 88.5 2003 79 1991 59 2014 86.7 2002 75 1990 49 2013 87 2001 73 1989 46 2012 86 2000 71 1988 45 2011 84 1999 67 1987 42 2010 85 1998 65 1986 37 2009 84 1997 69 1985 21 2008 83 1996 61 1984 14 2007 82 1995 68 1983 14 2006 81 1994 58
How did we go from a country where about 14% of the population wore their seat belt, forty years ago, to one where it’s nearly universal today? Forty years might feel like a long time when you’re young, but it’s really not in the big picture. People fundamentally changed in a relatively short span of time. To a large degree, they were made to change. PSAs played a big role. State policing played a large role, with the rise of “Click it or Ticket” campaigns.
But I like to focus on the top-down shaming. Some of you guys might remember the following:
As I had no interest in being dumber than a dummy, and I also just liked the statistical argument for crash survival with a seat belt, verses not wearing one, I became the sort of person who would put his seat belt on for all car journeys – even one wherein the car merely moves from the garage out into the driveway. But for most of us, our parents and grandparents traveled the country without the restraints. And here we are anyway.
I wonder how much of our collective societal anxiety is self-imposed. The more we try to control fate, the more things we have to keep track of. Maybe sometimes ignorance is bliss.
All this is to say that if your dad or granddad is ever annoyed by the car safety equipment required to transport his decedents, you should cut him a break. He’s already come a long way. Forty years ago, he would have done the drive while drinking a beer.