Safety Belt Myths
By
Ken W. Hanna
Alcohol, Drugs and Traffic Law
Coastal Carolina University
HPRO 335
Instructor John Bertang
June 18, 2007
Traffic accidents are the leading cause of death in the United States of America. Of all of the people killed in vehicle crashes, young people from fifteen to twenty year olds have a higher percentage than any other age group. Around two thirds of the young people killed in car crashes were not wearing their safety belts. (NHTA) Increasing safety belt use can greatly reduce the number of deaths and injuries sustained from traffic accidents. Many people choose not to buckle up. They give many reasons and excuses of why they make this sometimes fatal decision. There are many myths that exist about seat belt usage. Many times people buy into these myths and do not know the facts about wearing safety belts.
One myth that many people believe is that a seat belt can trap you in your vehicle if the vehicle catches on fire in a crash or becomes submerged in water. This belief is simply not true. The fact is that death in car crashes caused by fire or drowning accounts for less than 0.1% of motor-vehicle-related trauma. (Michigan). Many people drown in a submerged car because they were not wearing their seat belt, knocked unconscious by the crash, and then drowned. The same goes for burning in a crashed car. Many times the seat belt will keep a person from sustaining the blunt force trauma of the crash and allow them to stay alert and conscience enough to exit the vehicle. Also many people that are in crashes not wearing the seatbelt get ejected from the vehicle at the speed in which the vehicle was going prior to the crash. The vehicle stops, but their body keeps traveling at the same speed. Most people ejected from a vehicle during a crash die from serious bodily injury. The fact is that a person’s chance of being killed is twenty-five times greater if they are thrown from the vehicle. (NHTA)
Another myth many people believe is that air bags are a substitute for safety belts.
This could not be further from the truth. Air bags are designed to supplement a safety belt, not replace them. Airbags offer hardly any protection if a vehicle is involved in a multiple car crash or if a vehicle rolls over. According to the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration, air bags, when not used with safety belts, have a fatality-reducing rate of only twelve percent. (NHTSA)
Yet another myth many people believe is if they are not traveling on a major highway or on a long trip, that safety belts are not necessary. This is completely wrong. There have been accidents in which people have been traveling at extremely low rates of speed and have still had fatalities due to not wearing a safety belt. According to research done by the Michigan State Police, three out of four traffic crashes happen within twenty-five miles of a person’s home and at speeds under forty miles per hour.
The last myth to discuss is the fact that many people believe that seat belts can actually hurt you in a crash. This is just not true. Properly worn safety belts seldom cause injuries. The most injuries a person would normally sustain from a safety belt is bruising. This is not a bad injury considering the safety belt spread the force of the impact across a the body, instead of all of the force being concentrated in one area, which is usually the head in car crashes with no safety belt.
Whether someone truly believes these myths about wearing safety belts or they just do not want to bother to put one on, there is a great deal of statistics that prove safety belts will reduce a person’s chances of being seriously or fatally injured in a vehicle accident. Because vehicular accidents are the leading cause of death in the United States everyone should carry out one of the most simple and effective ways to try to reduce the number of fatalities, Buckle-up America.
Works Cited
Michigan State Police. 2007. Safety Belt Myths and Facts. Retrieved June 16, 2007,
from
National Highway Transportation Safety Authority. 2001. The Facts To Buckle Up
America. Retrieved June 16, 2007 from
Nursing, June 2004. Myths and Facts About Wearing Seat Belts. Retrieved June 16,
2007, from