Seat Belts

There has been great speculation about the effects of seat belts and the laws requiring you to wear one. While in Florida, only front-seat passengers and those under the age of 18 must wear a seatbelt, although there is still good reason to wear one if you’re in the back seat. Traffic fatalities have been reported to be steadily dropping drastically since 2008; this is often contributed to the increase in seatbelt usage.

If you or a loved one has suffered injuries in an automobile accident due to the negligence or lack of care of another, contact the experienced automobile accident attorneys at KWB Law; you may be entitled to compensation. We understand that a monetary value cannot be placed on a seriously injured or possibly late family member, but the stress that comes with medical and/or funeral expenses certainly doesn’t help, so it could be worth some looking into.

Getting pulled over for a seatbelt, or lack thereof, results in a fine; an outstanding difference when compared to the price you must pay for committing other serious traffic violations like a DUI. If you a thrown from a vehicle during an accident, your death risk goes up a whopping five times, making the simple fastening of a seatbelt a wise choice for everyone.

Surprisingly, there are people out there whose goals are to obliterate the use of seat belts and get rid of them altogether. Why? They claim that seat belts are killers; scams that are designed to generate revenue for companies that promote vehicle safety. I’m always open to hearing the opinions and viewpoints of others, and I won’t shut down the theory completely, but let’s be honest; it defies common sense.

There are instances where a seatbelt can actually cause death in an accident, but this is not only rare, it requires extraordinary circumstances and is usually due to someone’s negligence. A good example is if a seatbelt is being improperly worn without the chest strap, putting all of the pressure on your waistline and possibly causing internal organ damage, or being too big, small, or wrongly positioned on children. There was a case where a little girl died in a car accident due to a “blunt-force injury caused by her seatbelt”.

  • In 2008, 65% of passengers between the ages 13-15 and 21-34 that were killed in a crash were not wearing seat belts.
  • Research shows that there is a 45% reduction in fatal injury risks for front-seat passengers when wearing a seat belt.
  • For passengers over 4 years old, in 2008 alone, seat belts saved an estimated 13,000lives.
  • 88% of people over the age of 16 strongly agree that they would want to have their seatbelt on during an accident.
  • The most common reason given by 16-20-year-olds when asked why they didn’t wear a seatbelt is because they forgot, or that their destination was close.

Let’s face it; seat belts save lives, and to not wear one simply because it’s ‘cool’ to fight the law is an unnecessary risk. Does it take the loss of a loved one before people realize the importance of seat belts? Let’s smarten up and spend the few seconds it takes each time we get into a vehicle; there’s no good reason not to.