Seat belts are the single most effective traffic safety device for preventing death and injury on the roads (Source: National Safety Council).

Statistics reveal that 87 per cent of people wear seat belts however more than half of all crash fatalities were people who weren’t wearing seat belts. Incidentally, seat belt use is higher in U.S States that enforce mandatory seat belt laws (Source: NHTSA].

Research has found that seat belts can reduce the risk of fatal injury to front-seat passengers by 45 percent and the risk of moderate-to-critical injury by 50 percent (Source: NHTSA).

Choosing to wear your seat belt is a crucial decision that may save you from serious injury, or potentially save your life.

Seat belts keep you secure

Don’t be fooled into not wearing your seat belt if your car has safety airbags. You still need to wear a seatbelt because safety airbags are intended to work with seatbelts, not replace them, and seat belts help to restrain you from side impacts which airbags don’t do.

If your vehicle is in an accident, wearing a seat belt can keep passengers restrained within the vehicle and avoid deadly ejections or in-vehicle injury. While seatbelts can’t avoid accidents, by making a decision to wear one you have a greater chance of surviving. Across a five year period until 2012, seat belts saved more than 63,000 lives in the U.S. (Source: NHTSA).

Effects of not buckling up

Seatbelts and restraints are designed to contact with the parts of your body that are the strongest – your hips and pelvis area, and shoulders – so if you are in an accident the force is spread over a wide area of the body. Their aim is to slow you down from any quick changes in speed.

Even a low-speed collision can send an unrestrained occupant into the dashboard or side window, resulting in head injuries (including brain damage), lacerations and fractured bones.

At higher speeds, the effects are amplified and passengers can receive severe injuries from being ejected through the windshield, and impact with road surfaces and other vehicles. This animated video shows the effects of passengers being unrestrained

Opting out of wearing seat belts doesn’t just have a physiological cost – an estimated $60 billion annually is accounted to society in medical costs, law enforcement, productivity loss and other injury related costs from vehicle accidents with non-seat belt wearing occupants (Source: Pacific Institute for Research & Evaluation)

Child safety seats

Everyone in your vehicle should be safely restrained – including your kids.

Children have different skeletal structures than adults so you must use properly fitted child safety seats and make sure they suitable for your child’s height, weight and age. It is irresponsible and highly risky to allow your child to travel in a vehicle unrestrained.

Keep yourself and your passengers safe and secure by choosing to buckle up – the small act of ‘making it click’ could save your life.