Seat Belt Safety
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, of the 37,461 people killed in motor vehicle crashes in 2016, 48 percent were not wearing seat belts. In 2016 alone, seat belts saved an estimated 14,668 lives and could have saved an additional 2,456 people if they had been wearing seat belts.
The consequences of not wearing, or improperly wearing, a seat belt are clear:
- Buckling up helps keep you safe and secure inside your vehicle, whereas not buckling up can result in being totally ejected from the vehicle in a crash, which is almost always deadly.
- Air bags are not enough to protect you; in fact, the force of an air bag can seriously injure or even kill you if you’re not buckled up.
- Improperly wearing a seat belt, such as putting the strap below your arm, puts you and your children at risk in a crash.
