Quote:
Originally Posted by Fabio
Such seriousness with the seat belts. 
Not trying to talk anyone else into shredding their seat belts of course.. I am clearly in the wrong, but it's not like my irrationality is challenging an issue any more rational. |
Sorry, but it's quite well proven that seat belts and airbags save lives--lots of them. Deaths per passenger mile fall every year despite more cars on the road, more miles traveled, poorer driver education and larger disparities between the smallest and largest cars on the road. There is no rationalizing away the statistics--or the crash test results.
Airbags got a bad rap because originally they were mandated as a passive restraint--to try to substitute for a seat belt. That resulted in airbags that caused more injuries than they prevented. Since then they've been changed to a supplemental restraint to prevent the body from hitting the hard objects in the car when the impact was heavy enough to overwhelm the seat belt. In this they perform very well.
You can rip out the airbags if you want. It's just as asinine as not wearing a helmet on a motorcycle, but if you want to kill yourself, that's fine. (Make sure your passengers know before they get in the car, though.) But not wearing a seat belt puts people in other vehicles at risk (not to mention pedestrians and bicyclists), so at least wear one while driving.