34 results for seat belts

Seat belts: another look at the data

I am grateful for a question posted today by Carsten Jasner in response to an earlier post of mine – Seat belts again. It has prompted another look at the data: Very interesting! But when the number of car occupant deaths increases while the number of all road user deaths decreases how can the number …

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Moral hazard: bonuses, seat belts and condoms

(If experiencing problems with IE7, please try Firefox, Opera or Safari) “Moral hazard is a term that dates back to the 1600s. Until recent times its use has been mostly confined to the insurance industry to refer to behaviour that responds to changes in perceived risk. The industry has noticed that people who have contents …

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Seat belts – from the archive

Now in retirement and culling my files in the process of downsizing I came upon the following letter from the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents dated 7 July 1981 shortly before Parliament was to vote on a seat belt law, and encouraging Parliament to vote for the law: TO ALL MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT …

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Seat belts again

Yesterday when I showed Mayer Hillman the graphs in my last blog on this subject he complained that they displayed the statistics for all road user deaths and not the statistics for those affected by the seatbelt law, i.e. people in the front seats of cars. My excuse was that at the time I produced …

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Seat belts – myth inflation update

The myth of the efficacy of seat belts laws has become deeply embedded. Their success is routinely invoked in all sorts of unrelated arguments: e.g. Opposing wind farms is as ‘socially unacceptable’ as not wearing a seatbelt says the climate change minister. Every so often it is given a boost by an outrageous claim that …

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Seat Belts: the debate goes on, and on

Letter accepted for publication in Significance, December 2008. This is a much abbreviated version of the letter submitted. Apologies for my delayed reply to the Controversy piece by Richard Allsop, et al  (Significance, June 2008) – challenging my piece Britains seatbelt law should be repealed (Significance June 2007). The myth that seat belt laws save lives …

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Seat belts – blood on my hands?

I have just found an anonymous, one sentence comment on my blog. It reads: Your campaign against seat belt wearing has already borne fruit: http://www.stuff.co.nz/4411639a6479.html . The link takes you to an interesting story from New Zealand with the headline Seatbelt subterfuge kills driver. The driver who was killed, according to the story, was opposed …

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Seat belts – again

On the first of February 2008 I sent an email to the Department of Transport at – road.safety@dft.gsi.gov.uk. It said: In your press release of 31 January you state: “Seatbelts have prevented an estimated 60,000 deaths and 670,000 serious injuries since 31 January 1983 when seatbelts were made mandatory for drivers and front seat passengers.” …

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Seat belt legislation and the Isles Report

In most countries arguments about seat belt legislation are dead. But it remains a live issue in the United States where such laws are a matter for individual states. As a consequence there exists in the United States a variety of laws and levels of enforcement, and considerable debate about their effectiveness and moral legitimacy. …

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Britain’s seat belt law should be repealed

The BBCs Today Programme is running a competition called Christmas Repeal in which listeners are invited to nominate an existing law that should be repealed. I nominate Britains seat belt law. [Update 23 December. Despite my high hopes and much encouragement, my Immodest Proposal did not succeed. It did not pass through the Today Programmes …

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