My seatbelt saved my life when I rolled my car (2.5 rotations, whee!), and I still hate wearing them.

Motorcycles have no seatbelts! Yay imminent death & destruction!

Lee, I am working tonight. Tomorrow, I am finishing the installation of my stemware rack & rearranging my books, watching the Sabres beat the Islanders again, and then going for a ride with Motorcycle Boy (weather cooperating). Sunday, I am unplanned, but I'm sure there will be pre-DJ-visit cleaning.

What are you doing?

Lee, they last forever because we're mean to the other days of the week. Friday's just standing up for his compadres.

Weekend plans are in flux. I could be going to PA, or I could be hunkering down at home building the next ark, if the weather report stays as is.

But I'm constantly irritated by the seat belt.

Physically irritated? If your car doesn't have something to adjust the height of the seatbelt, there are products out there that can protect your neck from being rubbed raw. I'm five-two on a good day, and I've been fighting this since I started driving.

Seatbelt saved my life too and my friends' lives in the same car accident. I hadn't given it much thought but think I would have gone over the overpass and onto the freeway below without it. I hope for Matt's friend's sake he doesn't have another accident, but he's got very strange notions regarding probability.

Yes -- look under "seatbelt extenders" which will rearrange the way the belt sits so that you're not wearing it across your neck!

It's not just the major accidents that seatbelts help during, but even minor fender-benders can end up with you leaving a big dent in the windshield, or whiplash, or some of your teeth knocked out on the dashboard. And those happen a whole lot more often than rollovers and flaming wrecks.

(FWIW, my cop-brothers have had to work more than one accident where the unbelted person was not only ejected from the wreck, but then the car landed on top of them.)

Hugs seatbelt tight. People in my car wear seatbelts because I don't need people slamming into me. Seatbelts keep your face outta the windshield. This is a good thing.

A friend of mine (big burly jock) never wore a seatbelt. He's a doctor now and I noticed that he was wearing it the last time I saw him. I wonder if his time working ER cured him of the stupid habit.

They are uncomfortable, but so is being tossed out of the car. OK, obviously sore spot with me too. I'll stop.

so is being tossed out of the car.

Even just being tossed around inside the car is uncomfortable, and makes it difficult to try and retain what little control over the vehicle you have during a crash, you know with not being seated in front of the controls and all.

This is one area where I'd vote so very much in favor of logic over emotion. Even if being belted in feels a bit choke-y, looking over the real odds, and the penalty for losing those odds being so high, it may be best to accept a little not-feeling-comfortable for being safer.

Yeah, the two times I've run off the road (uncontrolled, anyway—have driven into the median to avoid crazy wrong-way truckdriver) I was very glad of the seatbelt even though they weren't big Hollywood style wrecks. Jus the stability of position helps keep you from losing (more) control of the car.

I'm with Theodosia on this one. It's a gamble I don't want to take.

Not that it changes anything, but I could technically be fired for not wearing my seatbelt. It's part of the driver conduct requirements for having (and keeping) a company car. Violation of any of the terms can lead to sanctions up to and including termination of employment.

It's not just the major accidents that seatbelts help during, but even minor fender-benders can end up with you leaving a big dent in the windshield, or whiplash, or some of your teeth knocked out on the dashboard. And those happen a whole lot more often than rollovers and flaming wrecks.

I always wear mine. They don't prevent whiplash, though. Ask my neck.