“How’s someone going to act that way in another person’s car?”
An Uber driver is racking up views on TikTok after sharing a tense exchange with a rider he described as “entitled” after she initially refused to buckle her seatbelt.
Dustin (@dustinisdriving), who regularly posts footage from a camera mounted inside his car, shared the clip showing a verbal standoff with a passenger seated in the front seat while her child rode in the back.
“Uber driver does not take crap from entitled driver,” he writes in the on-screen caption of the video.
In the footage, the woman pushes back when Dustin asks her to put on her seatbelt, saying that she would do it on her own time, while immediately taking a sharp tone with the driver. Dustin responds by explaining that wearing a seatbelt is the law.
“I don’t want to get pulled over,” Dustin says. The passenger wasn’t convinced, though, insisting that if police stopped the car, she would be the one ticketed, not the driver. “You don’t have a reason to be pulled over,” the woman says. “You’re not doing anything illegal.” As the exchange continued, she grew increasingly dismissive of the driver’s requests.
“You’re not talking to your wife or a child,” the woman adds, as Dustin repeatedly presses her to buckle up. Eventually, she did put on the seatbelt, but her frustration didn’t let up. “I’m not a kid. I know what I’m supposed to do,” she says. “You don’t rush me. I’m not rushing you.”
The back-and-forth continues briefly before the clip cuts off. Viewers who watched the now-viral video largely sided with Dustin, calling the passenger out for her behavior and praising the driver for staying calm throughout the interaction. As of this writing, the video has pulled in 45,800 views.
Sometimes the driver, sometimes the passenger—and sometimes both. According to USClaims, the answer to this question depends on where you are and who’s in the car.
In most states, drivers are legally responsible for making sure children are wearing seatbelts. If a child isn’t properly buckled up or isn’t secured in the right car seat, the ticket would obviously go to the driver, not the child.
But for adults, the rules aren’t as cut-and-dry. For one, some states have laws mandating that only drivers and front seat passengers wear seatbelts, while others require that everyone in a moving vehicle wear one.
In many states, such as Texas, police can pull a driver over for spotting an unbuckled passenger. In some places, the passenger gets the ticket. In others, the driver does, especially if the unbelted person is sitting in the front seat.
The stakes can get higher after a crash. If someone is hurt and wasn’t wearing a seatbelt, that can affect insurance claims and lawsuits. An insurer or a court may argue that injuries were worsened by not being buckled up, which can reduce the compensation someone receives.
There’s also a fundamental safety issue. In the event of a collision, an unbuckled passenger can be thrown forward with enough force to seriously injure or kill others in the car, including the driver or themselves. That’s, in part, why many drivers insist everyone buckle up before the car moves. Wearing seatbelts helps avoid tickets, protects drivers, and helps keep everyone alive.
Viewers who weighed in on Dustin’s clip overwhelmingly sided with the driver, with many saying the rider’s attitude was out of line from the start.
“SHE CLEARLY KNOWS WHAT TO DO AND YET SHE DOESN’T DO IT,” one person observed.
“How’s someone going to act that way in another person’s car,” another remarked.
Others chimed in to say they would’ve shut the situation down much faster if they’d been behind the wheel.
“‘Cancel Ride,’” one commenter wrote.
“I’d just pull over and kick her out,” another said.
“I will stop immediately,” a third added. “Done with the argument, period.”
Still, not everyone was entirely on Dustin’s side. A handful of viewers said that while they didn’t fault him for pushing back, they questioned why the car was moving at all before everyone was buckled up.
“My car doesn’t move until all seatbelts are fastened,” one viewer said.
“He should have not taken off until her seatbelt was on,” another argued.
“Why would you ever start driving if she didn’t have her seatbelt on?” a third asked.
Motor1 has reached out to Dustin via a direct message on TikTok and to Uber via email. This story will be updated if either party responds.
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