The Safe Driver

The bottom line – seat belts save lives

For more than 40 years, there has been a law designated to those living in Ontario Canada to wear a seat belt; driver and passenger. In many other jurisdictions, laws have been in place for 20 or 30 years. Some for even more. You often wonder about certain laws, but wearing a seat belt seems to make sense, despite what some people believe.

So here’s a question for you. If statistics show that wearing a seat belt can greatly increase your chance of survival in a collision, why doesn’t everyone wear them? This isn’t just for the driver. It’s also included for passengers. Ontario has a great compliance to wearing a seat belt of more than 90%, but is that enough? Many of the US states have a percentage of less than 90% and some below 80%. What has made these statistics worse? Opinion.

You may think that 90% or greater is a fantastic number, it’s not. Let’s just talk about drivers, not passengers. If Ontario has 8.5 million drivers and 90% of them wear a seat belt, which leaves over 800,000 drivers not wearing a seat belt. That doesn’t include passengers. And 35 out of the 50 US states have compliance to wearing a seat belt under 90%. I’m not a huge fan of using statistics in my articles, but these statistics can’t be ignored.

Now the question comes out about wearing a seatbelt. Why would you want to? During the second season of Canada’s Worst Driver, of which I was an on-air judge, one of the participants believed he could land safely after being thrown from a vehicle. For this opinion, he did not wear a seat belt. Really? To be thrown from the vehicle, you have absolutely no control over when you land. In the path of another vehicle, squashed underneath your own vehicle or into another hard surface such as a tree, building or large rock. Being thrown from a vehicle may also mean you’re thrown through the windshield or side windows. Doesn’t seem to be pleasant to me, how about you? Wearing a seat belt keeps you in the safe driving compartment.

The photo attached to this article is real. It came from a friend of mine. The vehicle was located outside of his house. The driver had fallen asleep at the wheel, mounted the curb and eventually struck a tree. And by the way, if you look to the far right of the photo, that’s the driver walking along the road. The paramedics released him with having only minor injuries. He had his seat belt on.

Imagine if he didn’t have his seat belt on? He would have gone straight through the windshield at impact. Based on the photo, airbags didn’t not deploy. (Learn more about airbags HERE) One thing to remember, airbags are considered “Supplementary Restraint Systems”. The key word is supplementary. In other words, they help the seat belt keep you safe in the event of a collision. In this particular crash, the seat belt did its job. Now do yours – wear the seat belt.

**Have a quick listen to this short episode of the “Speed Bumps” podcast as it discusses further the need for seat belts…even on the shortest drive!