THE SPIKE. Benefit-cost studies show the enormous value of getting people to wear seat belts by mitigating the consequences of accidents.. Economists will point out, however, that wearing a seat belt will tend to make a driver less careful because he is at less risk of injury if there is an accident. Professor Armen Alchian is usually credited with the suggestion that a good way to make drivers more careful and thereby reduce accidents would be to mount a large sharp spike in the middle of each steering wheel.
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The effect of driver protection is also shown by the statistics showing that truck drivers — presumably more skilled than amateur drivers — have much rates of accidents per mile driven than other drivers. A truck driver who hits a school bus can walk away from the crash.
But economists like Sam Peltzman who make this point miss a factor that they would emphasize in other contexts: there are private benefits for a driver who takes more risks because of a seat belt; with less danger, the driver can do more of what she wants to do at the wheel. Some of those private benefits may also be social benefits. Greater speed, for example, may be a social benefit, because less time is “wasted” driving. And a world where potential victims of negligence also have seatbelt protection is one where the costs of a crash are lower.
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