Have you ever gone over to someone’s home and they’ve got some really weird rules? Homes are little castles and everyone has some particular quirk that they’re only comfortable with at home.

Same goes for cars: they’re also little personalized spaces where people can feel comfortable. And sometimes, one of those weird rules is not wearing seatbelts. I don’t know about you, but it’s muscle memory for me at this point.

This story is about a friendship suddenly falling apart when a friend wouldn’t put on a seatbelt for a 15-minute ride.

More info: Reddit

Sometimes friendships get tested by the silliest of things, but personal safety is certainly far from silly

Image credits: Dids (not the actual photo)

A woman took it online to ask if she’s a jerk for refusing to move another inch when her friend wouldn’t put a seatbelt on

Image credits: u/throwandgo1234

Image credits: Maxim Hopman (not the actual photo) 

Her friend had an interview upcoming and said that she foregoes belts because of a traumatic story involving her uncle, who was trapped in a car by one and perished

Image credits: u/throwandgo1234

The poster kicked her out of the car after some arguing, leading her to be late to the interview and lose out on the position

In the original poster’s (OP) story, a friendship all but fell apart after she refused to drive her friend, dubbed “Reese”, to a job interview. She refused for a good reason – her friend just wouldn’t put on her seatbelt. And her friend really didn’t want to take any risk for Reese ending up in pieces.

Reese said she wouldn’t do it because of a traumatic story of her uncle, who supposedly perished in a car explosion when he couldn’t remove his seatbelt in time as he was “twisted up” in it.

A lot of comments called this story out for being bogus, some of them identifying as first responders and nurses, saying that it’s far more likely that the uncle was unconscious or otherwise incapacitated – if it even happened.

You heard that right – many called out Reese and said that her story is completely fake, something that she’s created so people would give her a free pass on the seatbelt thing. But you’ll have to make up your own opinion for that.

Another thing that she was called out on was her own logic. She mentioned that she’d be without a seatbelt for a mere 15 minutes, but the opposite is also quite true – if she had abided by her friend’s rules, she’d only have to wear it for 15 minutes.

This led to a falling out, as neither side would budge and Reese was late to the interview, missing out on the job she had been seeking for a while.

Image credits: Gustavo Fring (not the actual photo) 

According to the nonprofit National Safety Council, seatbelts have saved more than 370k lives from 1975 to 2017. Furthermore, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimates that lap and shoulder belts reduce the risk of perishing in an accident from 45% to 60% and the risk of injury falls even lower.

We should give thanks for our lives being safer almost daily to Nils Bohlin – a little known Volvo engineer who invented the three-point safety belt, making it much safer and easier to use. Even more so as Volvo at the time made Bohlin’s patent available to all, even gifting designs to competitors, so adoption would happen quicker and everyone would be much safer as a result.

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But some people really do refuse to wear them. According to a study performed by the aforementioned NHTSA, the main reason why people occasionally forego seatbelts is because they are driving short distances, with 56% of seatbelt-ignorers mentioning it. As for the people who don’t use them entirely, 65% said that they are uncomfortable with them, which I can understand, but I’ll still take a bit of discomfort over being robbed of life.

For the short distance part, I also get it, I truly do. But freak accidents happen and I don’t want to be on the front page of the papers as “the guy who forgot his seatbelt and paid for it.”

Another funny reason listed in the survey is “resentment at being told what to do,” which is kinda… goofy?

And if you’re ever in doubt about your seatbelt-wearing activities, watch this Irish seatbelt promotion ad and you’ll be… quite refreshed, I promise. It’s quite brutal, but the message is clear – buckle up.

OP’s story got nearly 14k likes with a 92% upvote rate and the community’s judgment that she was not a jerk. Some people did say that OP was the butt, but most shared stories of their own, which, while gruesome, only support wearing seatbelts.

Share your own thoughts about seats, belts, and safety in the comments below!

The community agreed the driver wasn’t a jerk and that not wearing a seatbelt is no joke at all

Image credits: cottonbro studio (not the actual photo) 

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