Seat Belt Safety Tips to Save Money and Life

Seat Belt Safety – Why You Should Buckle Up

In our country, 49 states have mandatory seat belt laws. There’s a reason why law enforcement has stepped up their regulations of drivers and passengers wearing their seat belts: it’s your first line of defense in the event of an accident, and could be the one thing that prevents you from getting injured or killed.

Each year, more than 40,000 drivers are killed in car accidents; 42% of those were unbelted. More importantly, 15,000 lives are SAVED annually because of wearing a seat belt. Though an average of 88% of drivers wear their seat belt each time they’re out on the roads, it’s not enough, and the numbers of injuries and deaths related to unbelted drivers or passengers has been on the rise. Seat belt use remains the lowest amongst younger drivers.

A seat belt does much more than keep you restrained to one area.

• It keeps you inside your vehicle in the event of a crash.
• It restrains your body at its strongest parts.
• It spreads out the force from any collision, putting less strain on one area and helping you avoid injury.
• It slows the body down, also preventing more severe injury – the impact of hitting a dashboard at 30 MPH is equivalent to falling from a 3rd story window.
• It protects your brain and your spinal cord.

Even if you simply need to make a sudden stop, you and/or your passengers will be better prevented from incurring whiplash or other bodily injuries that happen with sharp halts. The simple fact of the matter remains: wear seat belts to save your life.

Because of the mandatory seat belt laws that have been passed, drivers AND passengers who are caught without wearing one will be issued a citation. Not only do you save yourself the cost of a fine, but you also save the potential hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical costs after a crash injury. This affects not only you, but all taxpayers through rising costs of insurance premiums, higher medical costs, and higher taxes. According to research performed by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the taxpayer burden from failure to buckle up is estimated around $137 billion each year.

By making one small choice before you even turn your car on, you can not only save money, but save lives. Seat belt safety has become one of the top issues of the driving community; make sure you’re on the responsible end of the conversation.

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