UAE attempts to make seatbelts more fashionable in order to encourage use
Seatbelts have been spun as fashion items before, but not like this. In an effort to counteract the low take-rate of seatbelts in the United Arab Emirates, the Salama Road Safety Public Awareness Initiative will be launching soon. The initiative will adorn the potential life savers with haute couture logos like Gucci, as well as the logos of sports teams, flags, and so on as a way to make buckling up suddenly hip to young motorists.
Abu Dhabi's Health Authority (HAAD) cites figures that it can entice more than the current 11% of Emiratis to click the buckle if it appeals to the citizens senses of pride or style. Peer pressure to avoid belts was also cited by respondents to the HAAD's as a reason for not belting. The idea may not work, but it's worth a shot to flip the script on the fashion conscious and turn seatbelts from lame to haute couture.
[Source:Arabian Business via Luxist; Source Image: Zumiez]
_opt_thumbnail.jpg)
_thumbnail.jpg "2011 Audi A8: Live from Miami")
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Shipey 4:43PM (8/25/2009)
I don't really want a $600 seat belt.
Reply
Farmboy 5:29PM (8/25/2009)
They can afford it over there. HA, financial stereotyping.
The Hit 10:51PM (8/25/2009)
I find your stereotyping offensive.
Just because I can afford to coat a Bugatti Veyron in Platinum doesn't mean I want a Louis Vuitton seatbelt.
Clavius 4:54PM (8/25/2009)
Well now they'll have something else to "Customize". Can't wait in a few month's we will hear about how someone over there has their seat belts made from Gold and Platinum fibers.
Reply
Ari 4:53PM (8/25/2009)
Not wearing a seatbelt is also quite retarded. Maybe its just retarded enough to work....
Reply
John P. 4:54PM (8/25/2009)
LOL! I love the pic. I would have happily Photoshopped an LV for you if you asked.
Reply
James 5:02PM (8/25/2009)
Jeeves, would you open this Dior...err, door for me.
Stumpy 4:58PM (8/25/2009)
I wear my seatbelt because I feel naked without it. That and it could save my life.
..
Reply
nrb 5:35PM (8/25/2009)
My first car had vinyl bench seats. If you didn't wear your seat belt, you couldn't take a (hard) left turn without sliding across the car. It'll teach anyone to wear seat belts.
Maybe everyone should learn to drive with vinyl bench seats.
Willie 5:00PM (8/25/2009)
It's worth a shot. The worse that can happen is people don't buy the special edition and they axe the program.
Reply
TimO 5:12PM (8/25/2009)
That'll never work.
What they really need is a series of films with awkward under-acting and 10-year-old slang that they can show to 15 year olds as part of civics class.
Everyone knows how well that works in The States.
Reply
artandcolour 5:41PM (8/25/2009)
Survival of the Fittest. if young people don't want to wear seatbelts, oh well. buh bye. they save lives. that should be "cool" enough.
Reply
Venom 5:21PM (8/25/2009)
I personally think you should have the freedom to not wear your seat belt if you want.
My life, my choice.
Also, by doing that I also accept what may happen to me if I do not wear it.
I think it is laughable that some idiot cop with no education and two months of training is going to ticket you and tell you that you should wear a seat belt. It gets even more laughable when they are on a motorcycle.
I challenge any of them to run their motorcycles at 70mph against me and my car with 5,000 pounds, 10 airbags and crumple zones and see who wins.
I have been waiting for years to get a seatbelt ticket so that I can sue the state to get the law overturned but I am yet to get one.
Actually instead of suing to get the law overturned I would instead sue to get a bill introduced to ban all motorcycles, boats, ATVs, jet skis, school buses etc.
If it is not safe to drive my car without a seat belt then surely these vehicles are outright death traps.
Reply
m 5:35PM (8/25/2009)
Your life. Their road. ...Their choice.
Seat belt laws are not there to keep you safe. They're there to save you money. Unsurprisingly, the people that tend to ride in cars without wearing seat belts are the same people that tend to not bother with insurance. Then when those people get in an accident and get mangled, who pays their ER bills? All of us do. Usually these people that don't bother with insurance or seat belts also don't have much money. So most of them down own a bunch of motorcycles, ATVs, and boats. Can you get mangled on a boat? Yep. Can you get mangled just as badly as you could in your car without a seat belt? Yep. But chances are if you have the intelligence to get the job to afford that boat, you also thought it was worthwhile to pay for some insurance to protect yourself and your things. So when you mangle yourself, it's really not the state's (taxpayers') problem.
Al Terego 6:22PM (8/25/2009)
Venom,
You need someone who has to live the rest of their live in a wheelchair to sell you on the hard lesson, or learn it yourself firsthand. There's convincing the real idiots like yourself with words alone.
Al Terego 6:23PM (8/25/2009)
*There's NO convincing...
Markona 6:28PM (8/25/2009)
IDIOT!!! Nothing more to be said about Venom, except Darwin was right about the lowest and slowest of the species taking themselves out of existence.
airchompers 6:38PM (8/25/2009)
Okay. I'll provide a motorcycle for you. The motorcycle will go 70 mph, you will go 70 mph. You must hit the motorcycle head on with out a seat belt. I bet dollars to doughnut that you will die.
Venom 7:09PM (8/25/2009)
Anytime anywhere idiots.
Bring your motorcycles and I will put them up against my car or my buddies Hummer.
Only a simpleton would believe that you would sustain less injuries with a bike than a car.
By the war armchair statisticians, my father has been a surgeon for over 30 years and he does not believe in seat belts and has seen many incidents where seat belts cause more damage than if the person was not wearing one.
Al Terego, while you are calling me an idiot you should talk to my friend who is a cop that nearly paralyzed himself while riding his motorcycle. He hit a sleeping policeman in a parking lot and the bike popped up and landed on him and he was in the hospital for months.
By the way it is not their roads, it is our roads. Our taxes pay for them and this is our country so I don't know who the they you are referring to it.
Markona, I love your comment about Darwinism.
Well I have 3 degrees, I drive a $130,000 car and live in a 6,000+ sq ft home and own several businesses. Are you doing as well as I am? I doubt it. So good luck with your theories.
m 7:23PM (8/25/2009)
I would love to see your father's statistical evidence that seat belts create more medical cost than they prevent. He's got an awful lot of data stacked up against him, but I'll keep an open mind. So come on, share it.
And no, they're their roads. The government is not your contractor. They are not building with your money. It's the government's money, not yours. You do not have control over it. When you pay your taxes, what once was your money becomes theirs.
Or maybe we should do it your way. Is it also my very impressive car sitting outside your oh-so-great house? I may have given some of my money to one of your many thriving businesses, so that means that your money is really my money, right? And your car is really my car, right? I should really be able to do whatever I want with it since I paid for it and all. I was thinking about some modifications to the safety systems...