Motor Vehicle Safety
Seat Belt Use
Despite decades of public information campaigns, laws, policies, and efforts of government and non-government organizations, more than half of the people who die in vehicle crashes annually were not wearing a seat belt at the time of the crash.
The benefits of buckling up are clear: it helps keep a driver or vehicle occupant safe and securely inside a vehicle and reduces serious crash-related injuries and deaths by about half.
The consequences of not wearing, or improperly wearing, a seat belt are also clear. Not buckling up can result in being ejected from the vehicle in a crash which is almost always deadly. Air bags are not enough to protect drivers and occupants. Air bags are designed to work with a seat belt and not as an alternative to one. The force of a deploying air bag can seriously injure or even kill vehicle occupants if they are not buckled up.
Seat belts can also be considered protection against the impaired, aggressive, and distracted drivers previously discussed.