Traffic accidents are one of the major causes of serious injury and death in America!  These tragedies are the aftermath of people who choose to drive without seatbelts or under the influence of alcohol or drugs.  You can reduce these tragedies by:

• Obey traffic safety rules
• Drive defensively
• Keep your vehicle in good mechanical condition
• WEAR SEATBELTS!!!!

There are two collisions in every motor vehicle crash.  The first occurs when a vehicle strikes an object, but death or injury is most often the result of the second collision.  That’s when the occupant collides with the interior of the vehicle or collides with the ground as the occupant is thrown out of the vehicle.  Ejection from a vehicle occurs 10 times more often to occupants who are unprotected and unrestrained.  The best protection for occupants involved in a collision is lap belts and shoulder restraints.  In a frontal collision, safety restraints can cut the chance of injury to the head or face by 60 percent.

Safety Belts Really Work

Virtually every study ever conducted indicates that lap and shoulder belts cut the risk of serious or fatal injury between 40 and 55 percent.  Safety belts and child safety seats save lives.

Safety Belts and Air Bags

Air bags are not a substitute for safety belts.  Air bags are designed to inflate only during frontal collisions and are useful only as a supplement to safety belts.  They offer no protection during multiple crashes, rollovers or side contact.  That’s why safety belts must always be worn, even in cars equipped with air bags.

The most common reasons for not using safety belts are based on false assumptions, such as:

Myth: Safety belts trap occupants in their vehicles, especially in cases of fire and submersion.  I’d be better off if I’m thrown clear.
Fact: Death by incineration or drowning accounts for less than one-tenth of 1
percent of motor-vehicle-related trauma.  Most passengers who are ejected from cars die and the majority of them are thrown out through the windshield.

Myth: Safety Belts can cause injuries.
Fact: It’s true that injuries due to safety belts have been reported.  But in
these infrequent cases, the belt was worn incorrectly or the crash was so severe that the occupant would have been more seriously or fatally injured without a safety belt.

Myth: Safety Belts are important only for long trips and high-speed expressway
driving.
Fact: Three out of every four traffic crashes happen within 25 miles of home and
at speeds under 40 miles per hour.  Unbelted occupants have been killed at speeds of less than 12mph-parking-lot-speed.