Not Wearing a Seat Belt

Hypothetical- Mom fills up the gas tank and just begins to pull toward the exit of the gas station. While parked at the entrance to the street, she is reaching over her shoulder to buckle her seatbelt before pulling onto the road itself. Before she fastens the belt, a semi truck driven by a driver with a BAC of .18 swings crazily into the gas station, the back of the rig hits Mom's car, she is thrown from the car and dies.
Mom's family is whiny because they want to sue truck driver?
These cases are always fact-driven.

I feel that if it can be PROVEN that the death could have been avoided had the person been wearing a seat belt the person who caused the accident is not responsible for the death. THEY took the risk, made the choice and are at fault. In addition, I also think that if this person is a passenger the driver holds some responsibility - I do not drive my car if all are not belted.

I would think the person breaking the law, would be responsible for any damage, deaths, or injuries that are incurred. I think the person not wearing the belt is stupid, but would not have died if someone wasn't breaking the law.
I know it's not legal to not wear your belt here, so that person would also be partly responsible...to me...from an ethical standpoint. Legally, I would assume the fault is on who caused the accident.

ETA: I don't personally think the family of the person without the belt on, should be able to sue.
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Sorry, I really meant to say IF one is breaking the law.The person causing the accident is still in the wrong, I believe. From a legal standpoint. If you cause an accident, the damages and injuries are going o be held against you. That's just the way our system works. Unless it's illegal to not be buckled in, I don't think the law or insurance companies will side with the person who did not cause the accident.

Legally the person judged at fault for the accident is responsible for the death. It may be different morally. The bottom line however, is that the person who caused the accident, the one found at fault by the insurance company and the police/court, is the one responsible financially and would be charged with a crime if the cause fits the law.

A person has the right to choose not to wear a seat belt and they do suffer the consequences in an accident whether it be injury or death. Their insurance may go up when the accident report states they weren't wearing a seat belt. They may get a ticket for not wearing a seat belt.

I doubt that the at fault driver could sue the unseat belted person, if that's an issue. Bottom line is each of us is responsible for our choices. The injured person is injured because of their choice but that doesn't change the law. The person who caused the accident is legally responsible.

I'm not sure what you're wanting by this question. Of course the person who chose not to wear the seat belt is morally responsible for their own death. But there is nothing within the law that allows for that consideration. Perhaps if you put the article in the SWH box we could address the issue better.

After your SWH. If someone causes an accident they have broken the law. It's the law that determines who is at fault.

I think that adults (over 18) can make their own decisions when it comes to wearing a seat belt or not. They or their family should not be able to sue unless the seatbelt was faulty. This is one of those "do at your own risk" and I can’t stand when people feel they need someone to blame because someone else was an idiot.
Our society is so sue happy and no one thinks they should be responsible for their own actions (or their children’s).

I assume you are talking about driver A colliding with driver B, and the accident results in the death of driver B, who was not at fault in the accident, but who was not wearing a seatbelt.

Is that correct?

There are risks to driving or riding in a vehicle without a seatbelt. When you choose not to buckle up you assume those risks, and if your cause injury or death to someone, including yourself, as a result, you are at least partially to blame.

And, just for the record, when in an accident, unrestained persons can and do become projectiles and cause harm and/or death to other, possibly seatbelt-wearing passengers. My dad worked as a state highway patrol officer when I was young and had many stories of adults killing the kids in the car that way. Mom or Dad or Grandpa or whoever would properly restrain the kids, but not buckle up themselves and the child would be crushed by the adult.

Consider that the next time you (not you personally, Turnip) argue that the risk of not using a seat belt is borne entirely by the one choosing not to buckle up.

I think this link might help your discussion.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contributory_negligence

If they would have lived by wearing their seatbelt, then they alone are responsible for the death.

I'm trying to figure out how someone could cause an accident by not wearing a seatbelt...

I will say that one just cannot assume that someone would have lived if they were wearing a seatbelt. People die with seatbelts, too. My sister was in a minor accident, wearing her seatbelt in the driver's seat, hit the rearview mirror and broke her glasses and cut her face. I know that seatbelts are supposed to hold you where you are, but they don't always do that.

I don't know the law as far as this goes, but I do know that just assigning blanket blame is just simplistic.

Maybe if I had read the story you are referencing, I could figure out how someone caused an accident by not being belted up, but I haven't made heads or tails out of that (sorry!) At any rate, I really believe that everyone should buckle up. If one has some physical ailments that make it difficult, the car places can help fashion modifications to help...

I don't know if this answers your question or not...

The law here says that you have to be buckled in. If I'm driving the car will not move until everyone is buckled because I am not going to risk a ticket because someone else doesn't want to buckle up in my car. Don't want to buckle, you can walk.
The driver that causes the accident is legally responsible for any deaths or injuries regardless of the stupidity of the person killed or injured.

Things that make you go hmmmmm. That is a good question to ponder. I would say that the person NOT wearing the seatbelt is at fault. But if the person who hit them, say, just robbed a bank and was trying to get away, or if they were drunk, then there would be way more to it. But to answer your question in general, yes, the person not wearing the seat belt is at fault. We wear seat belts in our family. I grew up wearing them, when we finally got a car that had one. My husband too. He is alive because he was wearing one when he was in a terrible accident, and we drill it into our kids heads too.

The person who CAUSED the accident is responsible - Seat belt or no seat belt

Your hypothetical situation - Yes, it is still the first person's fault. If person #2 had been wearing a seat belt they wouldn't have died, BUT if person #1 had seen the pothole - if person #1 hadn't over corrected - Person #2 never would have been hit.

In my opinion, it doesn't matter what the situation is. The person who caused the accident is responsible.

I'm not saying that the family of person #2 should turn around and sue them. I'm not saying that you shouldn't wear a seat belt - Because you most definitely SHOULD. I'm just saying that the person who caused the accident is responsible. Why? BECAUSE THEY CAUSED THE ACCIDENT!

Oh, my husband and I talk about the seat belt law quite often. I personally think making it a law is restricting people's freedoms. Anyone over the age of 18 that is able to get a driver's license also has sense of mind to make their own decision as to whether or not to wear one. If I get into a car (either as a driver or passenger) and decide to NOT buckle my seat belt, I know that I am putting my life at risk in the event of a serious accident. But shouldn't that be my decision? Just like if someone decides to commit suicide....isn't that their decision? Why do lawmakers get to decide this for me? How many times out of 1,000 are other people injured in an accident by a body not belted in? It's not like our bodies become flying objects like a fence pole in the back of a truck that gets hit from behind. It irritates me that someone else can tell me what to do in my own car. I am not talking about not belting in kids or any adult that cannot make the decision for themselves.
I don't think the person that causes an accident should be 100% liable for extensive injuries to someone that was not wearing their seat belt. Again, that person made the conscious decision and knew the risk.

it's a difficult issue for me. i really really hate the nanny-state laws that are covering all aspects of our lives like kudzu. my inner libertarian wants to rail that we all have the right to be stupid, and if we don't want to wear helmets or seat belts, it's darwin's law in action.
but seat belts and helmet laws have been SO instrumental in lowering deaths, especially in children, that it's hard to argue. like you, despite my youthful contempt for such frewfraws as seatbelts, i can't stand to sit in a car without one.
in your pothole scenario, i'd have to say that the person not wearing the seatbelt is responsible for the critical condition injuries, although of course not for the initial accident.
it's this sort of thing that makes me nut up when we pass blanket laws with feel-good descriptions like 'zero tolerance.'
khairete
S.

I would say that both are at fault. If the death would have been prevented by the seat belt, then the person who elected not to wear one technically contributed to their own death by engaging in risky behavior. However, the person who actually caused the accident still "caused" the situation and should be held accountable for the collision, but not the death.

If it's obvious that the seatbelt could have saved the victim's life, it makes sense that the victim is responsible. Just like blinkers, seat belts are not optional features on cars: they are there because the law is that we are all safer when they are used. And it is a law in my state.( I'm one of those people who also feels that bike helmets are a necessity.)

Like it or not, we have these laws for a reason. They do save lives, much like helmet laws. I mean, I guess we could have the freedom to live out our deathwish and not buckle up, but in our family the car doesn't even move until everyone is completely buckled in. It's a sad situation when people choose not to be responsible for their actions.

In many cases the liability in a case like that is shared. No one party is 100% responsible for the death, as there were multiple contributing factors. So yes, "technically by law" the person causing the accident shares at least half of the liability for the death of the other person.

I don't think it matters who is at fault. I doubt if either insurance company will cover the cost of medical care, pay out a death benefit, or anything else if the victim wasn't wearing a seatbelt.

My car doesn't move until everone is safely belted.

If you are old enough to drive, you made a conscious decision NOT to buckle up. The onus is on YOU. YOU made the choice. Period. End of Story.

The government can't protect you. It can't stop you from making stupid decisions (not YOU - but collective YOU). It's called Darwin's Theory. Unfortunately, the government (liberals) try to make it virtually impossible for anyone to accept responsibility for their choices or actions...so it will be deemed that it was NOT your fault and you were not responsible....because you couldn't foresee the accident....you had a bad day...you were in the wrong place and decided to run rather than stay and face the music....yep...not your fault! :)

ETA: you know the difference between a primary & secondary seatbelt law, right? Missouri is secondary.

As for texting laws by state, here ya go:

http://www.ghsa.org/html/stateinfo/laws/cellphone_laws.html

Its not clear from the wording in your question who died. How about a link?

Ok--since you won't share a link, considering Missouri doesn't have a primary seat belt law, NOR a law against texting while driving if you're NOT a teenager, the person didn't break a law but has made a choice resulting in their own death.
BUT we do from time to time hear those stories that go "if s/he WOULD have been wearing his/her seatbelt, s/he would have been surely decapitated....but because s/he wasn't, no injuries!"
So....ya just never know, I guess!

I think if someone doesnt wear a seatbelt and is killed in an accident that person shouldnt be tried with vehicular (sp) homicide if that person would not have died if they wore a seatbelt...the same for someone wearing a helmet on a motorcycle. although if they are on illegal substances or the death could have still been possible even with the seatbelt/helmet meaning the crash was so bad it didnt matter than i think they should be held accountable for the death

There are many people who simply cannot wear a seat belt. My MIL was one. She wore an Ostomy bag and if she put a seat belt across this area it would rip her skin up. She got a note from her doc and she didn't have to wear one in any vehicle she rode in.

My friend is a heavy person and our seat belt, even with an extender, will not fasten around her. I called the police department and they told me that if they stopped my vehicle and she was in the vehicle with us they would not give us a ticket. Since she physically could not wear one it would not count against me.

I wore a seat belt when they were lap belts only. I have injured my shoulders and it is very uncomfortable and occasionally actually painful to wear a seatbelt (shoulder harness).

If I got into an accident because the other driver was drunk or careless or stupid or inattentive, then they are responsible for the accident and its consequences. I may have some responsibility for my injuries, but if they weren't careless or neglectful I wouldn't be hurt.

I have car insurance. I choose the coverage and pay for it. If I choose insufficient coverage its my fault if I have an accident that costs more than my coverage. Its not the other driver's fault any way that I didn't buy enough insurance.

I don't think Big Brother or Nosy Nanny should be telling me that I must or must not wear a lap seat belt or lap and shoulder seatbelt.

BTW, A friend of mine had an aunt that DIED in an accident BECAUSE she WORE A SEAT BELT. The uncle was driving and wasn't buckled in. He rear-ended a truck carrying re-bar. He was thrown free an she was skewered with a bundle of rebar. He limped back to his truck and saw her breathe her last very painful breath with rebar though her guts.

Good luck to you and yours.