NHTSA Will Require Audible Seatbelt Reminders For Everyone In the Car (caranddriver.com)
- Reference: 0175697649
- News link: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/24/12/19/0038246/nhtsa-will-require-audible-seatbelt-reminders-for-everyone-in-the-car
- Source link: https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a63215664/nhtsa-seatbelt-rules-passengers-stricter/
> Previously, federal standards governing seatbelt warnings only required manufacturers to monitor the driver's seat, issuing a chime if its seatbelt was unbuckled when the vehicle was underway. Now, a [2]new rule has been finalized, requiring all new passenger vehicles sold in the U.S. to have [3]enhanced front seatbelt warnings by September 1, 2026, and rear seatbelt warnings by September 1, 2027 .
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> It's exactly 50 years since Congress attempted to mandate ignition interlocks tied to seatbelt use, in an effort to reduce deaths on the road. In that instance, the public revolted and the House blinked, repealing the interlock requirement later in the same year. [...] The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimates that these new regulations will save about 50 lives per year, and reduce injuries by 500.
[1] https://slashdot.org/~sinij
[2] https://www.nhtsa.gov/press-releases/nhtsa-finalizes-seat-belt-reminder-rule-increase-seat-belt-use-improve-occupant
[3] https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a63215664/nhtsa-seatbelt-rules-passengers-stricter/
Belts are difficult for some (Score:1)
People with disabilities or who suffer from severe obesity often struggle to find suitable belts. And extenders don't always fit in all cars. As some one who has difficulty fitting belts in the past I feel this will just punish people for not confirming to standard body types.
Re: (Score:2)
If you can't fit into a seat belt, your body size is so moribund that you will die soon enough any way.
Easy fix (Score:2)
Just keep all the belts plugged in all the time
Re: (Score:3)
Yup. Better headline proposal: "NHTSA Mandates that Seatbelts Must be Stored in the Engaged Position, and not Retracted."
Unintended consequences (Score:1)
I guess this means more and more people will buy (or 3d print) the short buckle clips and leave them in permanently to prevent cargo from triggering warnings. Likely meaning when an occasional passenger sits in the back seat and finds they cannot insert the buckle, they'll just decide to go without.
Gilding the Lilly A Bit (Score:1)
My car is almost 6 years old. I can't remember the last time I had a rear seat passenger. Coupled with the rarity of injuries to rear seat passengers, the overall expense borne by the public for this extra hardware in 100's of millions of cars might be better spent in funding extra support directly to emergency services.
Re: (Score:1)
It's more the risk of injury to those in the front seats from flying rear seat passengers. My 2017 Ford has seatbelt chimes and it is really not an issue.
Prices to pay (Score:2)
OK, is the marginal return on this regulation, 50 deaths and 500 injuries, worth the added price, both the financial and the Orwellian boot descending on human faces for eternity? I submit it is not. There should be some price in this live for being a dumbs**t. This is one of those price points. Perhaps NHTSA should have a nice soul to soul conversation with DOGE.
{^_^}
Counterproductive regulations? (Score:2)
Wikipedia has a nice table of vehicle fatality statistics. Deaths per mile decreased steadily from roughly 1966 through 2014. In 2014, there were 1.08 deaths per million miles traveled. Since then, deaths/mile have increased by around 25%.
Is it possible that new safety regulations are becoming counterproductive? Just as an example: FMVSS 214 and 226 started a phased program in 2013 that has led to airbags in the pillars, and thick pillars reduce visibility.
Re: (Score:2)
It's smartphone use that has increased the fatalities.
50 people (Score:2)
If you want to save 50 people, have the police target red light runners. Just yesterday I almost hit a Jeep which thought running a red light after almost three seconds was perfectly fine. I'm at the head of the line. My light turns green. I go. As I'm just about at the intersection the Jeep comes from my right to make a left turn up the road beside me. Braking and plenty of horn was my response.
I can guarantee, ticketing those who blatantly run red lights would go a lot further than this seat belt no
Beaurocrats with too much time on their hands (Score:2)
Having to justify their non jobs by added on ever more spurious "safety" systems with a law of diminishing returns regards to actual safety. Having said that its even worse in the EU with endless warnings and bongs going off from driver awareness systems that don't work and in some cases actually distract the driver from paying attention to the road.
Re: (Score:1)
It's the problem when you have positions in government that are given a goal of reducing X by Y every year without a end point (or worse the ever favorite 'project 0' initiatives). The goals need to be set to get to a certain point of diminishing returns and then the positions eliminated and tax dollars shifted to something else. Instead, government only grows and never shrinks. Keeping obsolete agencies and projects alive forever.