I'm having a hard time imagining an accident caused by not wearing a seatbelt... I guess maybe being thrown from the vehicle and hitting a passenger in another car who was wearing a seatbelt?
this post was submitted on 29 Oct 2024
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It depends on the Jurisdiction.
IANAL, but in Australia, the Driver is responsible if any passengers are not wearing their seatbelt.
As I understand it, getting someone killed through negligence of any kind is manslaughter.
So I'd say yes.
Are you saying the driver is wearing the seatbelt, the passenger(s) aren't?
And how does the death result? Is it because of an accident? Are they messing/moving around in the car? Are they legally allowed to not be wearing a seatbelt in the vehicle?
There's too many undefined variables I think for anyone to give you a solid answer.
I've heard it mentioned that a passenger in the rear without a seat belt becomes a projectile in a crash and can kill or injure the person sitting in front of them.
That's on the driver. If you're driving, you are responsible for everyone in the car and out of it. If you drove off with someone unbuckled, that's on you.
That was my thoughts
Same idea, but if a pedestrian is jaywalking across a street, technically illegal and it's not a safe move - but is struck by a car - the car is still at fault. As a driver you are still in charge of driving a 2-5 thousand pound hunk of steel and you accept that risk when you get behind the wheel. So I think logically, what the person was doing was not the smartest - but that doesn't mean they deserved death for it - you are responsible.
Think about it this way - if you hadn't been there driving would they have been fine? If so, you caused it, you're at fault.
Same applies to rape and dressing provocatively. It's an irrelevant argument because it puts blame on the victim, when no matter what they do they don't deserve that outcome. The blame is on the person who caused it in the first place.
I'm sorry, but this kind of logic just baffles me. Are you talking out of your ass on this one? If you're driving and I'll jump onto the road right in front of you, will you still be at fault? Where in the world would that be the case? If I come to a factory and stick my hand into a wood chipper that someone was operating and then say "whoever the hell was operating this 5 thousand pound hunk of steel should be at fault now!", would I be correct in my logic?
Think about it this way - if you hadn't been there driving would they have been fine? If so, you caused it, you're at fault
This is next level mental gymnastics. If someone robbed you, think about it this way - if you hadn't been there, none of it would have happened. So maybe you're at fault after all
It's easy. You decided to drive a vehicle, you're at fault, it's your job to watch out for pedestrians. If you can't stop in time, you're moving too fast. If your vehicle is so large that it kills them instead of simply hurting them (see - large trucks with huge grills instead of safer lower fronts), then you're at fault 100% because you chose an unsafe vehicle. If you can't see them because it was at night, still I don't care, that was on you, you should be able to see them. Feel free to argue it in court, that's what they're there for, but duty should on the driver to prove that, they were the one operating the heavy machinery. If that worries you or makes you feel emotions then good. You should feel nervous when you drive a vehicle, it's quite literally heavy machinery that you're hurtling forward at 60mph. You're responsible for it.
Feel free to argue it in court
Sadly, there are plenty of instances of drivers who killed pedestrians doing just that and succeeding. Heck, in two cases the pedestrian was on the sidewalk or inside a building.
- https://dailyprogress.com/news/local/charlottesville-driver-found-not-guilty-of-ivy-road-pedestrian-death/article_f6620862-b94d-11ed-8e8e-2bdbe8368a37.html
- https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/bus-driver-found-not-guilty-in-pedestrian-death-1.1362139
- https://www.kolotv.com/content/news/Reno-police-investigating-pedestrian-injury-accident-on-Plumb-Lane--427602243.html
- https://www.capecodtimes.com/story/news/2019/01/04/driver-found-not-guilty-in/6376784007/
- https://www.indaily.com.au/news/2022/08/18/lamborghini-driver-found-not-guilty-over-pedestrian-death
- https://globalnews.ca/video/3873815/driver-found-not-guilty-of-killing-pedestrian-on-leslieville-sidewalk
I think it happens even more when it comes to cyclists being killed by drivers
My grandpa ran over a woman who walked into the street late at night. There was no way for him to have avoided it. He did not get in trouble. This was in California.
It still falls back onto the driver, as they chose to start driving without everyone buckled in.
What if the passenger unbuckles half way through?
According to this page, you could attempt to argue "lack of causation" if there was no connection between you not wearing a seat belt and your passenger getting killed.
But, the person who died is buckled in. That's how I read it.
Yes, and that is my point: unless you wearing a seat belt somehow made the accident more likely to happen, it really doesn't seem like manslaughter applies here.