Seat Belts Easily visible night or day

We ordered orange seat belts for one reason and one reason only they are highly visible.   Our carrier has a zero tolerance policy and this is a policy we have no trouble adhering to.  Buckling a seatbelt is a decision that is 100% in the driver’s hands and not buckling up can have dire consequences.  Not only in an accident but getting pulled over and receiving a ticket.
 
In our last truck we had black seat belts and we knew that at times it was hard for an officer or scale master to see if we were buckled in or not.  The field safety liaison gave us orange seat belt covers and this worked pretty well except that our seat belts would not retract all of the way.  I became a believer in those orange seat belt covers when I saw from a distance on the other side of the interstate a truck driver with orange seat belts.  We knew we needed these in our next truck.   There are many reasons out of our control that could have an affect on our lives but being accused of not wearing a seat belt would not be one of them. 

The gray seat belt on a black shirt is not very visible in a dark cab day or night.  If an officer was to drive by and look up into the cab and see a women with long dark hair would he be able to see the seat belt, maybe maybe not.
 
I found some interesting facts about seat belt use and that in 1998 only 69% of drivers wore seat belts and now in 2014 88% are choosing to buckle up.  Then with further reading I found that the non-users consisted of teens, males in rural areas, pick-up truck drivers, people driving at night, people who were drinking and imagine this commercial drivers.  I decided that the commercial drivers probably consisted a lot of the local deliveries and not the over the road drivers.
 
There was also the fact that women are most likely to buckle up and that we were also more likely to buckle up if we had a passenger in the car with us.  It is an easy habit to acquire and now we are very uncomfortable in a moving vehicle not buckled up.  This includes our personal vehicles as well as our truck. 
 
I found much of my information at this web site:
 
http://www.nsc.org/safety_road/DriverSafety/Pages/SeatBelts.aspx



 

Comments (7)

Linda Caffee

Bob and Linda started their driver careers after their children left home for college in 2000. Bob started as a driver for a large motor carrier with Linda as a rider. They decided to enter the Expedite industry as team drivers in 2005 and purchased their first Freightliner. Both, Bob and Linda have had their Class A licenses since the early 80's starting out driving in the oil field and hauling grain as fill in drivers where Bob worked as a diesel mechanic. Linda worked at the local country courthouse in data processing.

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Henry Albert

Seat belts are good and certainly save lives . The safety orange colored belts make it easy to see you are complying with the law . Just make sure you are not wearing a high visability orange safety shirt or you loose part of the effect of making the seat belts visable to law enforcement .

October 30, 2014 7:50:08 AM

Linda Caffee

Our Safety Liaison is constantly reminding everyone do not take your seatbelt off until the officer gets to the truck. Sit and wait till they get to the truck and ask for the paperwork. With that orange though rolling through a scale or having an officer go by us at night and look up into the truck I believe our chances are very good that they will be seen.

October 30, 2014 6:40:37 AM

Jeff Clark

I once got a $50 fine for not wearing a seat belt. An OH state trooper pulled me over for slowing sown when I saw him. I had been wearing my dark seat belt and a dark jacket. There is no way that an officer traveling in the opposite direction could see that. I removed my seat belt to retrieve my paper work as he was walking to my truck. I wonder if those orange belts would have saved me $50.

October 30, 2014 6:37:11 AM

Linda Caffee

Les you are right save lives and save a lease and they are very easy to buckle up.

October 30, 2014 6:37:07 AM

Les Willis

Nice post Linda-- Although florescent orange seat belts are sinfully ugly as heck-- they look a lot better than a citation of $500.00. Heck they may even save your life. Buckle up Folks and Stay Alive when you Drive!!!

October 29, 2014 18:42:19 PM

Linda Caffee

Thank you Craig! I agree they are a safety item and one I want the scale master and law officials see easily

October 29, 2014 11:04:49 AM

Craig McCue

Bob and Linda,
First off, I don't believe they are ugly. They certainly are different than the norm and very visible. Either I had never noticed or paid enough attention in the past, but until you wrote about the seat belts a while back I hadn't seen any other orange belts. Since your first article about them I have noticed them on several different trucks. Anything that keeps law enforcement off your case is a good thing and high vis seat belts are a very easy way to keep the DOT officers in the scale shack and you moving down the highway.

October 29, 2014 8:27:15 AM