Travel China and Beyond

Seat belts in China

Now, having talked at length about the various vehicles, I would like to highlight to you an interesting observation about the use of safety belts. Among drivers in China, the safety belts are often seen as a hassle rather than the well designed life saving tool they are. Why do I say that? Well consider the following examples:
1) You could be riding in a taxi cab and soon after leaving the initial/starting point, the cab gets on the highway. The driver is happily speeding along the road at a relatively high speed - in the range of 60 miles/hour. Then once the cab gets off the highway and starts going on the surface / city roads, the driver straps the seatbelt on…Why you would ask? Well, because in the city he is more likely to be seen by a policeman and pulled over for not wearing the belt. The reality is that the belt is a whole lot more useful when traveling at 60+ miles per hour, than when you are inching at 10-15 miles per hour in the congested city….But, you be the judge.
2) In another case, you might see a cab driver that has actually devised a “clever” system of metal pins to prevent the safety seat belt from retracting while not buckled. Why do that? Well because in that case the driver can just put the belt across his body without actually buckling it in, but from the outside (from the viewpoint of the police) the belt appears buckled. Again, the thought that crosses my mind is “what a waste…” But that is the situation. Seat belts are so rarely used that a friend of mine actually once got his white dress shirt smeared when he tried to use a seat belt in a cab. After getting in the cab he reached over and strapped the belt while in the front seat. Well, to his unpleasant surprise, the belt had hardly ever been used and over the months (or maybe years) of sitting exposed to an open window and dust had caused all sort of grime to collect on it. So when my friend strapped it across his body, his nice white shirt wiped the belt…He was never able to get the stain out of the shirt, unfortunately. One of the side benefits of renting or owning a vehicle in China is the fact that you can actually have a clean and functioning safety belt. We have been happily using the ones on our vehicle. Every so often we hear stories (in the newspapers or TV) about people being victims in a car crash where they were ejected from the vehicle. I wonder how often these cases bring to the minds of people here a thought like “… maybe I should use those seat belts…Hmm….”