As far as seatbelts though...well...I'd prefer we didn't have seatbelt laws. Heck I've driven cars with NO seats in em, much less belts. I just sat on a stack of old tires. Yee-haw!
Seriously all the regualtions in the name of safety irks me, diagonal seatbelts especially. H and anti-submarine belts would be safer but NOBODY (especially women) wears 'em. I did when I autocrossed back in the 70's and Thought they were pretty cool. Plus a helmet would cut WAY down on head injuries and fatalities, but again NOBODY is gonna wear one.
If people really wanna get serious about cutting highway accidents it's very simple really. Just institute a tiered licensing system. To explain very briefly, there would be restrictions on HP, weight, passengers etcetera on each tier of license. Until you reached a certain level of demonstrated capability you wouldn't be allowed to drive an automatic shift vehicle. Only after a person demonstrated a working knowledge of the dynamics of motion would he or she be allowed to move to higher horsepower, manual shift vehicles.
Driver training wouldn't be just the silly "rules of the road" that is taought now. You'd have to be able to define terms like understeer and oversteer, demonstrate the ability to calculate GVW, explain the effects of air pressure in tires, slip angles, power on drift, etcetera.
Sound tough? It is...but drivers would know how to drive.
I'd also include perks for those in the top tiers of licensing...easier penalties for minor traffic violations.
It would really cut down on accidents but....it ain't gonna happen.
Unless I'm made Car Czar...sigh.
BTW Welcome to FR!
prisoner6
prisoner6
You're making good points. Here's one more. Helmets would save even more lives. The pillars (if the belts & bags allow an occupant to reach them) are killers.