Well not really. Everyone knows that getting even a minor injury is very remote. If we truly, and I mean truly, thought like that we wouldn't get into a car and drive towards another and miss it by a foot or so at a combined speed of over 100mph would we... but we do day in and day out. Not that long ago we didn't even have seat belts in cars or helmets but we didn't stop when we had an accident did we. How long till they outlaw the riding of skateboards unless a helmet is worn. It's simply what society is into right now. I bet in a couple decades you'll see a reversal in the attitude and laws about helmets. Not because of the safety issue but because of global warming and other very influential issues such as the cost of fuel. Governments will decide that convincing the masses to get their asses on bicycle seats will be more important than enforcing helmet laws. Think I'm full of shit? It's already happening in Europe. Society continually evolves to the pressures and attitudes of the day. Its rarely about right of wrong or smart or stupid...

Anyone who is daft enough to get on a motorbike without a helmet is crazy. I rode pillion for years among a totally loopy crowd of bikers, but mad though they were none of them would've ridden without a helmet. Not because it was the law but purely because they didn't want to smash their heads to bits if they came off their bikes.

You believe you speak for the vast majority on that one??? Done many polls on it?
Personally i wear a seatbelt because I want to reduce my chances of dying if i am in a car crash, plain common sense. Bog all to do with being scared of fines - I couldn't even tell you how much the fine is -but at the very least the threat of fines are there to remind people of the fact there are consequences.

21yr old friend of mine died through not wearing a seatbelt - broke her neck going through the windscreen when in a road traffic accident, her mum was driving and never forgave herself even though it was shown the collision was in no way her fault. Hope you don't have to go through anything similar or maybe you would not be so glib and come up with such ridiculous statements.

Was the OP riding a pushbike or a motorbike?

Been through it. Have mates and relatives that have lost life and major body parts on the road. Nearly killed myself on more than one occasion. Didn't stop me from having a life and never will. And it certainly won't stop me from having an opinion as I can separate emotion from logic.

Wonder how this thread would have gone if I said I wasn't going to pay the fine - which is what the whole point was...

Oh well then i'm sure your dead friends and relatives would be extremely proud to think that despite their deaths/injuries you actually define driving without a seatbelt as 'having a life'. Great logic. Hope you don't end up in a crash and cost the taxpayers a fortune on life saving operations and support because of your logic.

My opinion on your original point (if you can call it a point) is pay the fine and stop throwing a juvenile hissy fit just cos you got caught this time.

I reckon it was a pushbike.

I must admit I'm not a fan of wearing bicycle 'helmets' since they are so flimsy and irritating.

I wonder if I would get stopped wearing my motorbike helmet on a bicycle. Probably.

I stopped someone wearing a spaghetti strainer on their head as they rode a bicycle once

You must see all sorts of things.

If you had any idea what the people i knew/know that came to unfortunate ends their response to you would have been a lot more, how shall I say this, unrepentantly colorful... In a nut shell they would tell you to go back to bed

That's great! I'm having a hissy fit so what shall we call yours then when it's so loaded with emotion... Dummy spit... If you're going to try and exaggerate how I could possibly be acting at least make it reasonably believable FFS

That's nice. We're idiots and obtuse. This from a man whining about a fine. You may not have started the thread about the law at all, but it was quite clear from the start that it wasn't about timing on fines at all. You've used the entire thread to whinge about the police, so I can only concur, in my obtuse way of thinking, that you didn't want to know about non payment of fines at all.
In fact, an idiot would know, without starting a thread on a forum, that if you don't pay fines, you get a bigger fine. Therefore, presuming you're not an idiot, you were after something else entirely.
However, you may be an idiot. Evidence shows that people who don't care about splitting their head open like a watermelon on a pavement may well have an idiot gene in there. Who knows. Personally I don't care if you split your head open. I think you'll find that's called 'Natural selection'.

You actually have no evidence at all about how many are getting 'pinged' as you call it. Personal experience is not 'evidence'.

All that and there was actually an answer to the question.

One more question could you say all that in one breath?

I left the smiley in the quote because I'm imagining that is what you looked like as you typed that tirade.

I normally say to people they shouldn't drink before typing but in your case a bottle of wine or two might help you relax a bit.

Note to self ask question again in 6 months but say I'm from India and see how many cerebral hemorrhages I can cause.

Don't forget to mention Centrelink

Natural selection. It's an honour to see it in actual process.