Sep
08
2009
Last night at 8pm BBC Radio 4 presented a programme entitled “Where did it all go right?” celebrating the success of Britain’s seat belt law. It will be available on the Radio 4 Listen Again facility for another 6 days. It can be found at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00mg2v6#synopsis (or if you are too late for the listen again …
Sep
03
2009
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 …
Nov
04
2008
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piece by Richard Allsop, et al (Significance, June 2008) – challenging my piece – “Britain’s seatbelt law should be repealed” (Significance June 2007). The myth that seat belt laws save …
Mar
05
2008
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 …
Feb
12
2008
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.” …
Jan
31
2008
Anniversaries are convenient occasions on which to reinforce myths. Twenty five years ago, 31 January 1983, it became compulsory for occupants of the front seats of cars in the UK to wear seat belts. Today Britain’s Department for Transport has posted a press release announcing that in the 25 years since the seat belt law …
Sep
06
2007
Britain’s Liberal Democrat History Group provoked a mid-summer controversy with its search for the greatest British Liberal of all time. Its short list, to be voted on at the party’s annual conference in September, consisted of William Ewart Gladstone, David Lloyd George, John Stuart Mill and John Maynard Keynes. The front runner for most of …
Jan
04
2007
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. …
Dec
16
2006
The BBC’s 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 Britain’s 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 Programme’s …
Aug
06
2006
Letter to the editor of the British Medical Journal, 26 June, 2006, commenting on Unsafe driving behaviour and four wheel drive vehicles: observational study, by Lesley Walker, Jonathan Williams and Konrad Jamrozik. EDITOR — Walker et al show convincingly that drivers and other occupants of heavy four wheel drive vehicles are safer in crashes than …
