Ok, so some things in the golden era were not too cool...

[scottyrocks]

I remember my brother and I riding unbelted in the back of my Dad's '61 Bonneville convertible with the top down.

These days? I think people would ride up alongside and read us the riot act (while they were driving - how safe is that?).

Never mind what would have happened to us in an accident. Although it would never have occurred to us back then, I think that kids today are fully capable, mentally, of jumping out of a moving car, if what I see in school is any indication of what they are 'capable' of.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The most important safety feature of any vehicle, whether it's a modern minivan or a Model A Ford, is an attentive, defensive driver. "Aggressive" driving claims lives every day.

 

[Fading Fast]

Safety SHOULD be an obsession, especially on the road and on the job.

Obsession is a qualitative word, so it is hard, at a point, to argue about it. Would you advocate for 25MPH speed limits as that would make the roads safer, or 20 or 10? Should every car have to be refitted with airbags whatever the cost (even it it meant some low income people had to give up driving)? Should frivolous car trips with children be made illegal? Maybe no one should be allowed in the front passenger seat?

Safety is part of a trade off that we all make in life. We all trade off a small percentage risk of horrific things happening to be able to enjoy life: we drive when we don't have to, we play sports that could - if a freak accident occur - kill us, we jay walk, we stop an elevator with our hand, we don't check the battery often enough in the fire alarm, the carbon monoxide detector. Some of us don't do any of those things; most of us do, at least, some of those things.

The cumulative societal "acceptable" level of risk changes over time. I think it has gotten tilted a bit too much toward safety versus risk, but I have no, zero, no desire to change anyone's behavior - if you want to wrap your child in sheets of bubble wrap, that's your business. But I can still have an opinion and my opinion is we, overall, obsess too much about risk. I think you don't feel that way. That is fine - I'm happy agreeing not to agree.

 

[HudsonHawk]

Obsession is a qualitative word, so it is hard, at a point, to argue about it. Would you advocate for 25MPH speed limits as that would make the roads safer, or 20 or 10? Should every car have to be refitted with airbags whatever the cost (even it it meant some low income people had to give up driving)? Should frivolous car trips with children be made illegal? Maybe no one should be allowed in the front passenger seat?

I may or may not advocate any of that, but that doesn't mean that safety should not be our first and foremost priority when driving. That we should take unnecessary risks in the name of "oh well, stuff happens". I work in an extremely dangerous business, and we all understand that there are risks. But that doesn't mean we don't do what we can to identify and mitigate those risks.

That is fine - I'm happy agreeing not to agree.

I'm not here to tell you what to think either, only to point out that I think your line of thinking is dangerous and I cannot for the life of me understand why you would take risks simply for the sake of what you perceive as "balance".

 

[Stanley Doble]

There was a time when average hiway speeds were 20 to 25 MPH and the accident death rate was far higher than today.

If you study accident statistics, deaths from auto accidents have been going down steadily since they began keeping records in the twenties.

It wasn't due to modern safety devices either. The graph shows no sudden drop when they appeared.

What does make a difference is the state of the economy. Every time there is a depression or recession, accidents drop. When the economy recovers, they go back up.

 

[Stearmen]

I remember my brother and I riding unbelted in the back of my Dad's '61 Bonneville convertible with the top down.

These days? I think people would ride up alongside and read us the riot act (while they were driving - how safe is that?).

Never mind what would have happened to us in an accident. Although it would never have occurred to us back then, I think that kids today are fully capable, mentally, of jumping out of a moving car, if what I see in school is any indication of what they are 'capable' of.

I remember, kneeling in the back seat, looking out the window, at the cars following us! I still remember seeing my first BMW motorcycle, with it's crazy cylinders sticking out.

 

[Stearmen]

There was a time when average hiway speeds were 20 to 25 MPH and the accident death rate was far higher than today.

If you study accident statistics, deaths from auto accidents have been going down steadily since they began keeping records in the twenties.

It wasn't due to modern safety devices either. The graph shows no sudden drop when they appeared.

What does make a difference is the state of the economy. Every time there is a depression or recession, accidents drop. When the economy recovers, they go back up.

You must not be old enough to remember this commercial. It took a long time to get most of us to buckle up, I didn't use them until the 90s. They have made a difference, and airbags were phased in over a couple of decades. [video=youtube;sq3cQVrnaWs]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sq3cQVrnaWs[/video]

 

[buelligan]

Why do I feel like the people in the above video were buckling up more so the paramedics didn't have to look so hard for the body's and less so they would actually survive an accident.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

The most important safety feature of any vehicle, whether it's a modern minivan or a Model A Ford, is an attentive, defensive driver. "Aggressive" driving claims lives every day.

Unfortunately some drivers apparently believe in the adage that the best defense is a good offense. :eusa_doh:

 

[jamespowers]

Why do I feel like the people in the above video were buckling up more so the paramedics didn't have to look so hard for the body's and less so they would actually survive an accident.

Especially with the lap belts that we now know would cut you in half anyway.

 

[Stanley Doble]

Not that it matters, but I have been a fanatical seat belt user since I learned to drive in the mid sixties. This was about when seat belts came in. They were not mandatory (to use) for many years but I could see that there was no downside to using them, and they might save my life.

I'm a little puzzled about how you came to connect my interest in road safety statistics with not using seat belts. It seems to me if you had to assume anything it would be the other way around.

 

[ChiTownScion]

Another thing about the Golden Era that I find totally "not cool" is the involuntary exposure to second hand cigarette and cigar smoke- especially for children. My rant on that subject as to my own childhood (50's and 60's) could fill a few volumes.....but I'll spare the reader.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I never knew what white paint actually looked like until my mother gave up cigarettes in 1980 -- the day her father finally choked to death from emphysema. Every white surface in our house was covered in disgusting, sticky nicotine residue, and I got violently, physically sick from the nicotine exposure when I finally scrubbed it off.

 

[Shangas]

I can't stand cigarette smoke. It makes me cough. I hate the smell. And I'm a mild asthmatic, so I reckon I'm more sensitive to it than most. My dad is an ex-smoker. When he found out that my brother had taken it up (I think he's stopped now), he went absolutely INSANE. He was yelling at him at the top of his voice for about three hours straight.

 

[Matt Crunk]

I don't smoke cigarettes. Never have, never will. My parents both smoked from a young age until very late in life. Growing up around it I thought it was a disgusting habit and never saw the appeal or the "glamour" in it. About the only place I think cigarette smoking holds any appeal at all is in old movies, but then we're not subjected to smelling it there.

However, I have been known to enjoy a fine cigar on occasion and have even contemplated taking up a pipe, plus the libertarian side of me would defend to my last breath a persons right to smoke in their own home, auto, or outdoors in any public place.

As for seat belts, yes, I agree they are a good idea. Yes, they save lives. I wear one most of the time. but being forced to wear one by law doesn't sit right with me at all. I'm an adult capable of making my own choices when it comes to my safety.

 

[EliasRDA]

My parents smoked when my brother & I were growing up, I picked it up in HS where the Jrs & Srs were allowed to smoke. I'm the rare cig smoker, some would call it a social smoker. I can smoke 1 or 2 cigs out oof a ppack then end up throwing the rest away as they get stale before I smoke another one. My ex girlfriend used to smoke I think Virginia slims, those super skinny ones by the pack a day, some days 2 packs. I asked her why not switch to thicker (regular) cigs & maybe she would smoke as many, she just gave me the look.

As ex military I'll defend the right to smoke on ones property, be it car, home, boat, etc & in public places that have good ventalation. I cant stand the govt thinking they need to tell grown adults how to live their lives but yet will allow them to do illegal drugs that are proven to affect ones responses, aka maryjane. Or telling me what I can & cant eat, such as transfat, sugar, etc.
Now I smoke e-cigs, an occasional cigar & have tried the pipe, still cant find a tobacco I like in it.

Dont even get me started on seatbelt laws, DED has a mandatory one but I'm working on my doctor to get an out for that. I have been in 2 cars accidents that if I had been belted in I would either be dead or a paraplegic (in which case I would be dead as that is not my quality of life).

Try being run off the road in a minivan full of 50-75 lbs boxes, load shifted & I ended nosing over a road side barrier hard enough to rip the wheels off over the lugs. I was pinned against the steering wheel by boxes against my back, head, etc, & was lucky enough to just walk away with bruises & a concussion because I am big & broad shouldered. A belt would have pinned me against the seatback & the boxes would have broken my neck. No barrier between the storage area & the seats so the boxes all slid forward & the fing other driver took off.

If I want to wear a seatbelt thats my choice, if I'm on a cellphone/drinking a soda/eating a burger/cleaning my glasses & have an accident cite me under the current distracted driving laws, dont just make more laws pandering to a select group to make them feel good & make the politocos think they "accomplished" something this term in office.

Ahh well.

 

[Zombie_61]

...As for seat belts, yes, I agree they are a good idea. Yes, they save lives. I wear one most of the time. but being forced to wear one by law doesn't sit right with me at all. I'm an adult capable of making my own choices when it comes to my safety.

Make no mistake, seat belt laws (and helmet laws for motorcyclists, for that matter) are about money more than safety. Politicians care far more about the small fortunes their states have to pay out to cover the medical bills of uninsured motorists than they care about a percentage of the general public who gets injured in a car or motorcycle accident because they chose not to wear their seat belt or helmet.

 

[Fading Fast]

I never knew what white paint actually looked like until my mother gave up cigarettes in 1980 -- the day her father finally choked to death from emphysema. Every white surface in our house was covered in disgusting, sticky nicotine residue, and I got violently, physically sick from the nicotine exposure when I finally scrubbed it off.

I chuckled (in a sad way) as we had as similar experience in the mid-70s when my nearly chain-smoking Dad gave up smoking cold-turkey and we cleaned every surface and did a little repainting and the house never looked brighter or smelled better. And it was disgusting to see the coating it had made on everything.

 

[buelligan]

I had an aunt and an uncle that were the same way, between the two of them they paid more for their cigarettes in a month than my car payment was. My uncle would quite literally have one in his fingers, one burning in the ash tray and he would be reaching into his pocket for another one to light up. The buttons on the phone would stick in they were so gummed up with nicotine. When they finally stopped smoking I joked with my mom that we could cut their wallpaper up in little squares and people could tape it to themselves as nicotine patches. If we spent the night at their house you had to wash everything you took with you whether you wore it or not.

 

[HudsonHawk]

I cant stand the govt thinking they need to tell grown adults how to live their lives but yet will allow them to do illegal drugs that are proven to affect ones responses, aka maryjane

Not getting into the politics of the legality of recreational drugs, but I can't see how you can reconcile those two statements.

If I want to wear a seatbelt thats my choice, if I'm on a cellphone/drinking a soda/eating a burger/cleaning my glasses & have an accident cite me under the current distracted driving laws, dont just make more laws pandering to a select group to make them feel good & make the politocos think they "accomplished" something this term in office.

Ahh well.

They can't do that unless that make it illegal to talk on your cell phone/drink a soda/eat a hamburger/clean your glasses etc. And there's a difference in laws that prevent one from driving like a doofus and requiring one to wear a seatbelt. The former actions affect other drivers, not just oneself. The most obvious example is drinking and driving. By your logic, they shouldn't make that illegal, only ticket people if they speed, run a stop light, cause a wreck, what have you. But there is value in deterent, especially when it comes to the safety of *other* people.