Originally Posted by
Nicholas Laureys
In case you were thinking Rip's seatbelt decision sounded too much like your kooky uncle, VNV:
The mandatory seatbelt laws were the auto industry's way to avoid paying for mandatory air bags; they had absolutely nothing to do with the safety effectiveness of seatbelts, which is actually quite questionable.
We ended up getting the mandatory airbags anyway and we (the consumers) have to eat that cost thanks to yet another government agency chasing utopia and trying to save humans from themselves (the bureaucrats are so admirably selfless!)