Seat Belts: Safety On The Road
Volvo has the honor of being the first to implement seat belts
in 1849. The first U.S. patent for automobile seat belts was
issued to Edward J. Claghorn of New York, New York on February
10, 1885.
This patent was described as a Safety-Belt for tourists that was
"designed to be applied to a the person, and provided with hooks
and other attachments for securing the person to a fixed
object."
Failure to wear seat belts is responsible for more fatalities
than any other single traffic behavior. In all of the traffic
accidents reported for 1999, 63% of fatalities were not wearing
seat belts.
Wearing a seat belt use is still the single most effective thing
we can do to prevent unnecessary traffic deaths and injuries on
America's roadways.
Traffic data suggests that education alone is not enough to
convince young people, especially males from ages 16 to 25 of
the dangers of not using seat belts. This age group is caught up
in the belief in their immortality due to their young age.
It is this age group that also exhibits the most violation of
drunk driving laws. They are also the most prone to speeding,
and other traffic related law violations.
Because of this, it has been suggested that stronger seat belt
laws and higher visibility enforcement campaigns be enforced to
make them buckle up.
Seat belts are the most effective safety devices in vehicles
today, estimated to save 9,500 lives each year. If 90 percent of
Americans buckle up, it could prevent more than 5,500 deaths and
132,000 injuries annually.
The cost of unbuckled drivers and passengers goes beyond those
killed and the loss to their families. Everyone pays for this
negligence. It may be in the form of higher taxes, higher health
insurance fees, and higher medical costs.
Imagine running as fast as you can, into a wall. You'd expect to
get pretty banged up. What if while running at full speed a wall
suddenly appeared in front of you? Would you be able to stop
instantaneously?
This is exactly the situation one faces when the front of his or
her car hits something at only 15 miles an hour. The car stops
in the first tenth of a second, but you keep on at the same rate
you were going in the car until something stops you, the
steering wheel, dashboard or windshield, if you're not wearing
your safety belt.
If this could happen at 15 miles an hour, imagine what a 30 mile
per hour collision would result in? It would be the same as
hitting the pavement after a 3 story fall. A properly worn
safety belt keeps that second collision - the human collision,
from happening. "Properly worn" means with both straps safely
fitted to transfer the impact of the collision to the parts of
your body that can take it, the hipbones and shoulder bones.
With just the shoulder strap on, one can still slide out from
under and get strangled. The lap belt alone doesn't keep one's
face from hitting the steering wheel or other parts of the car.
Wearing seat belts is the law in most countries. There really
isn't any reason not wear them aside from plain laziness. But
imagine, that investment of a couple of seconds before you carry
on to drive could save your life. Why not make that commitment
to invest now?