Seat Belts Save Lives: Use Them Always

WEARING a seat belt substantially reduces the severity of injuries when you are involved in a crash. It is incredible that the vast majority of road users do not use this simple safety strategy. Recent surveys indicate that not more than 20 percent of drivers, and even fewer passengers, buckle up. And the sight of small children standing and sitting on laps in moving vehicles, is not uncommon.

Parents have a duty to protect their children. If the rule of wearing a child restraint, or sitting in an approved car seat is applied strictly, most children will give up the battle against being somewhat restricted. After all, the consequences of standing or sitting on a lap in the event of a collision, are what really matters.

At only 50kph, the force with which you hit a dashboard and/or the windscreen in the event of a crash is 30 times your body weight. Most unrestricted children are killed, permanently brain-damaged or seriously injured if a collision occurs even at speeds below this. A child weighing 25kg will hit the dashboard at a force equal to 750kg. Even a small child weighing 10kg cannot be held in the arms of the strongest passenger against forces equal to 300kg.

To fail to protect one’s children, by not insisting that they are in child restraints, is tantamount to child abuse. A child left unrestrained, even in a stationary vehicle that is involved in a rear end or side collision, can be thrown through a windscreen or side window and severely injured.

One of the main reasons that crash statistics in the first world are lower than in developing countries, is the higher use of seat belts. Other factors include improved vehicle design, and wider use of air bags. Wearing a seat belt reduces your chances of being killed or seriously injured by about 65 percent. It is a habit that all drivers need to adopt, and ensure that passengers also comply.

It is easy to blame road carnage on the public transport and other heavy vehicles, but we need to remember that nearly 70 percent of vehicles in crashes, and 70 percent of fatal accidents, involve ordinary light sedan vehicles, all of which are fitted with seat belts by law.

The most vulnerable position in a vehicle is the front passenger seat, but this does not mean that people sitting in other positions are not at risk. If three people are sitting on the back seat, the middle person (especially if small) can be thrown forward between the front seats and severely injured on the dashboard.

Children in the rear of vehicles improve their chances of survival and lessen the chance of disabling injury by being in car seats, or wearing seat belts. If they are not in car seats or held by belts, they can end up as missiles, hitting their heads on the back of the heads of the driver or front passenger, with consequences that are often horrifying.

Getting in the habit of wearing a seat belt, and ensuring that one’s passengers (including children) comply, should be a life decision that we make, and keep. This simple decision may save our lives, or the lives of a loved one.

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