Buckle up, folks.
It’s past time to get serious about wearing seat belts and putting pressure on those who don’t.
Lately, North Dakota and Minnesota have seen a rash of fatal crashes in which drivers and passengers were not wearing seat belts, but this trend is all too familiar and should not be accepted as normal.
Seat belts save lives. The stats are overwhelming.
Motorists are twice as likely to survive a crash when wearing a seat belt. Of those only injured in a crash, a seat belt reduces the chance of severe injury by half. In other words, people who wear seat belts are twice as likely to walk away from a bad crash than be driven away in an ambulance or coroner’s van.
Seat belts secure us in the safest part of a vehicle and keep us from being tossed around or ejected, which often causes death.
Also, airbags are designed to work with seat belts to reduce the impact from a crash. The safety system does not work as designed if you’re not buckled up.
Yes, we’ve all heard stories about people who believe they survived a crash because they weren’t wearing a seat belt. Such stories are exceedingly rare and should be met with a healthy dose of skepticism.
And let’s also get real about the personal freedom argument for not wearing a safety restraint: It’s the height of selfishness that loved ones and emergency workers should have to suffer for someone’s stubbornness and foolishness.
Besides the tragic loss of human life, we all suffer financially when people die or are badly injured in car crashes. Insurance rates are based on statistics. A safer society lowers our risks and costs while a reckless society increases our risks and costs.
Oh, we know some people find wearing a seat belt to be uncomfortable or constraining. But there are far more uncomfortable and constraining challenges faced by people who were badly injured in car crashes, if they were lucky to survive those crashes.
It’s going to take all of us to change the culture around seat belts. Here’s what you can do to be part of the solution:
- If you are a driver, insist your passengers wear their seat belts or refuse to take them along for the ride.
- If you are a passenger, insist the driver wear a seat belt or refuse to ride along.
- If you are a parent, model smart behavior by always wearing your seat belt around your children.
- If you are a child, insist your parents wear a seat belt or get out of the vehicle. This even goes for adult children.
These are acts of love and should be conveyed as such: “I love you so much that I insist you be as safe as you can be.”
This insistence can be especially challenging for Midwesterners, but it’s needed because our region is among the worst at not wearing seat belts and dying from that distinction.
In fact, if you are a man, live in a rural area and drive a pickup, you check all three boxes for the population least likely to wear a seat belt. Those are the folks we most need to get tough with.
Because no man in his truck is a match for the momentum of mass in motion experienced in a bad crash.
Wearing a seat belt is not a sign of weakness. It’s a sign of utility. Secure your load.
