always without fail, regardless if I am in the back or front seats. You would be stupid not to wear one. I feel almost naked without one when in a car

I just always assumed that this was the case already.

I won’t start the engine unless everyone’s belts are fastened.

Can’t believe 57% (at the moment) only sometimes wear a seatbelt.. Who the hell is that thick? How many more people will have to die before the message hits home

I had to double check when I saw the poll results there: more than half only wear a belt sometimes? My flabber is gasted. Time for the RSA to do some more public awareness on the issue, perhaps?

That’s shocking, 60% = sometimes! I know it’s early in the survey, but it baffles me that the Always result is not higher than 38%. Like Simon, I feel naked without a seatbelt, it’s just a habit for me to belt up before starting the car. Not sure how true it is, but as the saying goes most accidents happen within 1 mile of your home.

The amount of parents/guardians/child minders who get into their cars put on there seat belts and not make the children wear there’s is a disgrace. i have see this constantly, children standing up in the front and back seats of the car, i think the Guards need to be more aware of this and prosecute…

I’m amazed at so many “Sometimes” votes. My car won’t allow me to forget with its grinding beeping after a few seconds if me or my front passenger are not wearing our belts. I would always wear my belt regardless of the harassment.

What is worrying is the amount of drivers, who are strapped in, yet their kids are standing up between the seats unbuckled while the car is moving, especially on the M11! It’s true what they say, “you need a licence to have a dog”. Pity it doesn’t apply to children!

Jaysus! I’m shocked by the results! Always, always, always wear a seatbelt.

I was brought up being told to put my seatbelt on, since I was small it was just an automatic thing without fail, put on the seatbelt. I actually feel uncomfortable without it. I hate being on a bus or even a train without a belt on. When I’m on an airplane I’ll keep the belt on the whole time

cant belive the results so far.i passed my test 23 yesrs ago and from first driving lesson I started by putting belt on.no matter whos car I am driving or a passanger in my seat belt goes on.some times I put it on and I dont even know I have put it on.if I dont put it on it dont feel right .its jus a habbit to get into.if you start from your first lesson you should get in to habbit of doing it.

I can’t believe that some people sometimes don’t wear seatbelts . Just wondering why?

I’m struggling to accept the results too! Are you sure the software is running properly? I actually can’t think of a time when I was in a car with some one who didn’t have a belt on. Maybe it was only city taxi drivers answering this morning… This really is the bare minimum of safety.

The problem with wearing a seatbelt while driving is that it makes it harder to lean back to watch the kid’s dvd screen. Its very difficult to follow a movie with just the sound.

I can’t believe the amount of people who only wear a belt “sometimes”. Like other people have previously said I would feel naked without my seat belt on. My kids are the same. It always horrifies me when I see kids jumping around in the back of cars. I had my first child 20 years ago and she was in a car seat leaving the hospital. In my opinion it’s just common sense.

One of my absolute pet hates is people who leave their children unbuckled in the back of the car. I think the book should be thrown at them.

I remember asking a relation of mine why his child was roaming free in the back of his car and him complaining that his three year old daughter wouldn’t wear the seatbelt and would throw a tantrum. This was his excuse for not making her wear one. I was horrified at the notion and spared him no feelings when I asked him how would he feel if he was in a car crash and she got propelled threw the windscreen. How would he feel if he ended up looking at his precious daughter smeared across the road? Needless to say I was wasting my breath. Some people are just so ignorant it beggars belief.

My car doesnt start until every occupant, child or adult, is belted up. My boys just do it automatically now.

My car makes an annoying beeping sound if my seat belt is not fastened, this got me in a good habit of using it as I never did before.

While I was waiting for my vote to be processed, I was thinking it would be a humdrum poll, with 80-90% selecting “always”, like me.
But no. Turns out half the voters out there are unhinged. Might as well be skydiving without a parachute. One nasty bump and you could have the steering column through your face.

You would have to be out of your mind not to wear one!!!!! There’s nothing cool about going through a wind shield!!!

Unfortunately there are parents who put on their own seat belt but not their childrens ones…do they put less value on their childrens lives ? I still regularly see children standing up between the front two seats. It’s completely unacceptable. They should be put off the road.

Always & nobody allowed in car without one. Can’t believe some people don’t use them or only sometimes – even moving out of your parking space you could be in a crash? Why would you risk the life of you or your passengers for something that takes a second?

I always remember a song called ” A DJ saved my life, well it was a seatbelt that saved mine, enough said!

Very surprised at this pole 43 percent said sometimes? Always wear a seatbelt for the love of god!

I wouldn’t feel remotely safe driving without my belt. It’s such a stupid thing to do, to go without it.

Always wear mine even my 4year old tells anyone in who gets in the car to put on their seat belt. I hope when he starts driving in 14years time he will be the same and tell his passengers to belt up. Also having a family member who attends RTA’s regularly, is also a wake up call !

I always automatically put mine on even if the cars not going anywere its a good habit of mine :)

I always wear my seatbelt. It’s an unconscious automatic thing I do. Ever since I was a kid. Add to that fact that I’ve friends in the gardai and the ambulance and fire services that have stories about arriving on to road accidents and let me tell you it’s enough to nearly keep you off the road altogether. There are some awful lunatics out on the road, speed, drink, drugs, road rage and sheer stupidity or a number of them combined.

My hubby won’t start the car unless all passengers have their belts on. Can’t imagine driving without having kids strapped in properly, that’s just asking for tragedy, god forbid your get into a crash and little one goes flying

I insist on everybody wearing a safety belt before I move off – everybody except my wife, that is, because she travels in the boot. But with the threat of penalty I will insist on giving her a belt before I take off from now on.

I didn’t know it was never not a crime?

lost count of the number of people i see driving with a child/ baby sat on their lap and not even wearing a seat belt themselves, also kids standing up in the backs of cars, swapping seats or leaning out through the sun roof . actually saw a guy in a big 4×4 using the mobile while he was driving, ( on the Rathcoole -Dublin road) he took off his seat belt and turned to face his 2 young kids in the back of the car and asked them if they ” wanted to say hi to mammy ” the car was in motion all the time he was doing this and he only turned to face the front when a wagon in the outside lane blow his horn at him to tell warn him he was drifting into the outside lane. my own car has a light on the dash that comes on and sounds a bleeper if a seat belt is not clipped in or if someone tries to take a belt off while the engine is running,also has a diagram of a car which shows if a door is opened including the boot. don’t see why all cars can’t be fitted with a chip that won’t allow the engine to start if an occupied seat does not clip in the seat belt should be standard on all cars.

I always wear my seat belt, I’m rarely in the back, but I’d also wear it seated there too. What really annoys me is parents who don’t bother putting their kids belts on letting the move around the car with ease. More often that not you’d see the parents with their belt on. Do they care????
Seat belts save lives. Simple as that. Those who don’t restrain their kids properly should be severely punished if caught. Simple as that.

Do you have to make sure adults wear their seat belts or is it just under 16. In a limo or a taxi its near impossible to get back seat passengers to wear their seat belts.

How long before someone demands another option in this poll?! :)

It’s your life.
It’s your health you are putting at risk.
Or indeed of your passengers.
I don’t think that Varadkar is concerned about your wellbeing as this is everyones own responsibility.
But as the figures prove, one third of people who died in accidents did not wear a belt.
It gets even more serious when mothers fail to strap in their kids.
This amounts to involuntary manslaughter.

WTF, 43% only sometimes or don’t wear a seatbelt at all, idiots!

People who answer anything other than always are a danger to themselves and others

I always wear my seatbelt, driving or passenger. It’s automatic to me to put it on before starting the engine. I only take it off when reversing to park.
When my son was very young I told him the car wouldn’t start if he didn’t put the seatbelt on. So it’s second nature to him as well.
Very surprised to see the percentages of non-use. And I really don’t understand how people can let children be without seatbelts.

Just goes to show that about 40% of the population are eejits. About 40% consistently voted for Fianna Fail each time. Another 40% haven’t paid their household charge and think it will just blow over! How many though Sean Quinn did nothing wrong? Surely it’s not the same 40% each time though ;-).

My motorbike doesn’t come with seat belts. :(

I Knew a gal that was “courtin’” in the passenger seat of her folks parked car. Car was hit from behind and she went arse first through the windscreen (no need to explain that….I hope). Her folks asked why the hell she wasn’t wearing her seatbelt. Maybe there should be an option for courtin’ as a reason for not wearing a belt. I can’t think of any other reason not to wear one.

I just wear one of these:
http://9gag.com/gag/4939242

Of course I wear a seatbelt

I am not stupid.I know full well the laws of physics.But I can see it is pointless to argue .Too many people have an opinion similar to yours and that is why we have a nanny state.I have travelled in back seats of cars without belts all my life and never killed ot maimed anyone.

And yes I care about road safety.

And how many serious collisions have YOU been in?????????????????

I care about anyone’s safety but I won’ t have any government dictate whether I will wear a seat belt as a back seat passenger or not.

It’s such a given that I’ve actually neglected to check that people have been putting their seatbelts on when I’ve given them a lift. I just assume they do it because they’d be stupid not to (which is stupid of me). Some people have the sense to ask if they can’t find their seatbelt but it may not occur to people if because they don’t drive, or if they haven’t been raised with the same RSA ads if they’re from another country, or their parents might have brought them up to believe it’s not necessary to use them.

I definitely wear my seatbelt, it’s just a normal part of getting into my car! If it saves my life then it’s worth those few seconds it takes :-)

voted Always but didn’t appear, need to check your survey is working right!

Not wearing seatbelts….it’s a culchie thing….

So 70% of people who died on the roads WERE wearing a sealtbelt.

I always wear music seatbelt and if you’re a passenger either put it on or get out.

Focus on education.. give people the cold hard facts, nothing more nothing less and If despite this people still choose not to wear it, or not insist that it be worn by others in the car they’re travelling in, they’re taking a calculated risk, as is their right as a human being.

Sorry cathal didn’t see ur post

seatbelt fines are just more revenue 4the vultures…..we all know stats are cooked…..the government dont give a monkeys about your safety..there are thousands of people who would be dead 2day if they had been wearing seatbelts in crash’s…myself included!….

I always wear a safety belt, however if someone chooses not to do so… Who does it effect other than that person themselves… they get injured or die…. so why legislate for it…. The Darwin Awards spring to mind.. Too stupid to live….

We are living in a bloody nanny state, that legislated for everything and in doing so removes personal choice from everyone

So if 30%of people who died were not wearing them 70% of people who died were wearing them but sadly still died how does that rate the safety belt. Most people wear them is Leo thinking up jobs for the guards .

http://izismile.com/2012/08/02/morning_picdump_59_pics-21.html

For those who polled ‘no’

I wear a seat belt only in the front.I never wore one in the back.And I am alive and well.

Well guitly as charged ;-) In my little town I usually dont wear a seatbelt but then ANY journey outside of town I always wear a seatbelt. Big change when I first came from living in Greece for years here to IRL and in Greece NOBODY wears a seatbelt EVER…. ;-) But yeah its ok safety first of course!!!

Caroline Locke you are deluded and irresponsible. At 50km/h an average adults weight is about 2.5 tonnes upon a sudden deceleration. Head rests are designed to stop the front seat passenger from snapping their head back. They are not designed to withstand an impact of 2.5 tonnes at 50km/h. What about your companions in the back? Same applies if hit from the side.

Eh, government brainwashed?????? You have no clue at all. Your delusion is borne of the fact that you deny the laws of physics. If only it were solely at your peril.