Seat Belts Save Lives

by Carolyne Volpe Curley / Carolyne@WestEssexNOW.com
Published 11:10pm

TRENTON, NJ - Historically, Thanksgiving is the busiest travel time of the year, putting more people on the road, and therefore increasing the likelihood of crashes. This year, it's estimated that over 1,036,800 travelers will take to New Jersey highways on Thanksgiving Day. In a national effort to reach out to all Thanksgiving travelers, the New Jersey Division of Highway Traffic Safety has joined with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) with one important message: Seat Belts Save Lives. 

Last year, New Jersey had six fatalities during the Thanksgiving period: three drivers and three passengers. Nationally in 2012, more than 300 people were killed in crashes on Thanksgiving weekend alone. 

Inertia
During a frontal collision, anyone in the car continues to move at the same rate of speed the vehicle was originally travelling. This inertia can carry the passengers into the steering wheel, dashboard, windshield or from the back seat into the front seat causing irreparable injury. The purpose of seat belts and airbags is to safely stop the inertia. Seat belts also ensure that passengers are in the correct position for airbag deployment. 

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“It is a sad statistic, but even sadder is that many of those
deaths could have been prevented with one simple click of a seat belt,”
said Division of Highway Traffic Safety Acting Director Gary Poedubicky.
“For those people who already buckle up every time: Thank you.
For them, this campaign serves as a reminder.
But for those people who still do not buckle up for whatever reason,
I want to say this: buckling your seat belt
is one of the simplest, safest things you will ever do.”

In 2012, approximately 12,174 people survived crashes because they were buckled up. The NHTSA estimates that proper seat belt use reduces the risk of fatal injury to front seat passengers by 45 percent, and the risk of moderate to serious injury by 50 percent.  The administration believes that if everyone had worn their seat belts that year, an additional 3,031 lives could have been saved.

“More than half the drivers and passengers being
killed in crashes are not wearing seat belts. That is a major problem,” said NHTSA Regional Administrator, Thomas M. Louizou.

Louizou said that in 2012, a total of 21,667 passengers were killed in crashes, and of those, more than 10,000 were not buckled up. Thanksgiving weekend 2012, a disturbing 60 percent of the passengers killed in crashes were not wearing seat belts. At night, the statistic was even worse: 69 percent of the occupants killed at night were unbuckled.

Age Group Fatalities
Younger drivers are the most likely to be unbuckled in a fatal crash:

• In 2012, passengers age 21 to 24 had the highest percentage of deaths; 63 percent were not wearing seat belts. 
  
  
• The second highest group of those killed and not wearing their seat belts were 25 to 34-year-olds, at 61-percent    
  
  

Male / Female Fatalities
NHTSA data also reveals that males are more likely to be unbuckled than females in a fatal crash:

• 56 percent of the males killed in crashes in 2012 were not buckled up
• 43 percent for females did not have seat belts on
  
  

Currently, the overall seat belt use rate in the United States is 87 percent, which is a major increase over the 79 percent use rate in 2003. The administration is working diligently to get out the message: Seat Belts Save Lives. 

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