OSEA Safety Blog

The Importance of Seat Belts

Thursday, January 31, 2019 Tammy Meng

There are more safety features than before with cars. These include the crucial seat belts, tire pressure systems, the proper air bags, and back up cameras. Drivers and passengers are putting themselves more at risk by ignoring effective injury prevention devices. Over 15,000 lives are saved each year by wearing seat belts, this safety feature reduces one’s risk of death or injuries by half.

Important Reasons to Wear Seat Belts:

  1. In crashes, not all victims are thrown out of vehicles. People that are not thrown have a better chance of survival than people being thrown from a vehicle without the use of seatbelts.
  2. The strongest part of our bodies are the hips and shoulders and the seat belts are designed to hold these parts of our body in place when worn properly.
  3. By wearing a seat belt you can avoid serious injury, with the way it was designed it helps spread the force of the crash over a wide area of your body. If you had to suddenly stop the shoulder strap holds your upper body away from the steering wheel and dash; the lower belt holds your hips in place from flying out of the seat.
  4. A seat belt is required by law and if safety is not enough reason to wear one, the penalties or fines should be enough.
  5. Oftentimes, an abrupt change in speed is what leads to an injury. Seat belts extend the time it takes for you to slow down in a crash. If you are not buckled up, you could end up hitting the dashboard or side window, depending on the nature of the crash.
  6. Depending on the type of crash you are in, you could suffer a brain injury and these can range from a minor concussion to a fatal diffuse axonal injury. Any of these injuries could take anywhere from a day or months before symptoms are experienced. Some injuries can have deadly consequences.

Airbags are not an effective substitute for seat belts, the airbags can help prevent injuries if used with a seat belt.

Source: http://www.fmslaw.org/

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