 
Seat belts save lives. Wearing a seat belt substantially reduces the severity of injuries when you are involved in a crash. It is incredible that this very simple safety strategy is not used by the vast majority of road users. Recent surveys indicate that not more than 20% of drivers and even fewer passengers worry to "buckle up", and the sight of children standing up in moving vehicles, and even sitting on laps is not uncommon. As parents we have a duty to protect our children. If the rule of wearing a child restraint, or sitting in an approved car seat is inflexible, most children will give up the battle against being somewhat restricted, especially if the parents are honest about the consequences of standing up, or sitting on laps. At only 50 k.p.h. the force with which you hit a dashboard and/or the windscreen in the case of a crash is thirty times your body weight. Most unrestricted children are killed, permanently brain-damaged or very seriously injured if a collision occurs even at speeds far below this. A child who weighs 25 kgs will hit the dashboard at a force equal to 750 kilograms. Even a small child weighing 10 kilograms cannot be held in the arms of the strongest passenger, against forces equal to 300 kilograms. To fail to protect one’s children by insisting that they are in child restraints is tantamount to child abuse. Even if one is not moving, a child who is unrestrained in a vehicle involved in a rear-end of 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 so much lower than in developing countries is the much higher incidence of seat-belt wearing. 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%. 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 or heavy vehicle industries, but we need to remember that nearly 70% of vehicles in crashes, and 70% of fatal accidents involve ordinary light sedan vehicles, all of which are fitted with seat belts by law. The most vulnerable position in the vehicle is the front passenger seat, but this does not mean that people sitting in other positions are not also at risk. If three people are sitting on the back seat, the middle person (especially if small) can be thrown forwards 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. In the case of a crash, they can act as missiles, hitting their heads on the back of the heads of the driver or front passenger, with consequences which 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 to. This simple decision may save our lives, or the lives of a loved one.
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