Why That Thing That Protects You Will Actually KILL YOU!

What the fuck, Time?

The Hidden Danger of Seat Belts
They still decrease our risk of dying, but the statistics are not all black and white. In fact, according to one researcher, seat belts may actually cause people to drive more recklessly

Really, Time? Your completely contrarian statement has me intrigued. Tell me more ...

The following article contains 894 words and not one of them even attempts to back up the assertion made in that provocative subhead. Statistics? Yeah, there's a few; but none of them show (or even suggest) that's there a correlation between seatbelt use and more accidents. There's this sentence:

"What he found was that contrary to conventional wisdom, mandating the use of seat belts in 18 countries resulted in either no change or actually a net increase in road accident deaths."

Except there's no further mention of these findings, an explanation, the context of them, or any actual proof that he didn't just make that statement up. The rest of the article is a bunch of obvious talk about risk and how we perceive it falsely and that people actually behave more recklessly when they think they're safe, even when they aren't. (see: SUV drivers) But again, nothing in the article even begins to defend the theory that there are any hidden dangers in seat belt use (more reckless doesn't automatically mean more deaths); that people actually do drive more recklessly (they might, but Time doesn't bother find out if that's true); or examine the question of whether John Adams, risk expert and emeritus professor of geography at University College London, is a complete fucking nutball who doesn't know what the hell he's talking about.

But no, let's scare people into thinking that they maybe shouldn't wear their seat belts, let asshats who already don't wear them think they're in the right, and ignore the fact that any sane researcher (had you bothered to ask any of them) would probably tell you that any increase in reckless driving is likely far outweighed by the benefits of increased seat belt use.

Gee, I wonder why people are so bad at assessing risk? I'm sure it has nothing to do with national news magazines asking them to worry about dangers that don't exist.

And yes, a driver wearing his seat belt in a car with anti-lock brakes, crash crumple zones, and front and side air bags, may drive a little bit more recklessly than he normally would (again, absolutely no proof of that; no one thinks they're invincible because of a goddamn seat belt), but if he does happen to get in a crash, he's probably going to be okay. You know why?

Because he's wearing a fucking seat belt, that's why! Get your head out of your ass, Time.

Better yet, why don't you take this article and mail it to Derek Kieper's mom. Given the way her son died, I'm sure she'll find the irony to be delicious enough to eat.

Kieper, a 21-year-old senior at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, died early Tuesday morning when the Ford Explorer he was a passenger in travelled off an icy section of Interstate 80 and rolled several times in a ditch. Kieper, who was riding in the back seat of the Explorer, was ejected from the vehicle....

In a column written for the Daily Nebraskan in September, Derek attacked seat belt laws as intrusions on individual liberties and expensive to enforce.