Last weekend, while driving with my family on the way for some grocery shopping, traffic unexpectedly slowed to a crawl about 2 blocks from the highway entrance. Why? It took a few minutes of waiting but we finally got our answer. One of our local police departments had set up a seatbelt checkpoint. My initial thought of “Is this really necessary?” did not even fully make it through my mind, let alone escape my mouth, before it was replaced by a shocked “Really? I can’t believe that many people weren’t wearing one!” I can’t believe that I have to say this in 2023, but you NEED to wear a seatbelt.
The seatbelt was invented by Volvo in the 1950s, and became a mandatory part of our automobiles in 1968. Since January 1, 1985, its usage has been required by law here in New York. Today, their usage is required by law in every state except New Hampshire. Modern vehicles are equipped with sensors, warnings, dashboard lights… the point being, you’ve had enough time to learn to wear your seat belt, and will have a very difficult time convincing me that you “forgot.”
According to the NHSTA, seatbelts saved about 15,000 lives in 2017, but four years later, in 2021, over 11,000 people lost their lives in auto accidents because they were not wearing their seatbelts.
It’s not enough for you as a driver to wear your seatbelt, you also need to ensure that your passengers wear one as well. I remember handling a particularly sad claim about ten years ago. The driver was “just taking a quick ride to the store” and his wife “didn’t see the need for a seatbelt as it was relatively close by.” The vehicle hydroplaned, the driver lost control, and hit a telephone pole. There was a spider-web crack in the windshield where the passenger’s head had struck the glass. EMS were on the scene in less than five minutes, but it was already too late. She didn’t make it. The driver had some injuries to his ribs but survived.
On a more personal level, a friend of mine lost his life in an accident just after college, because he didn’t put on a seat belt. He had been drinking, and was smart enough to know that he was in no condition to drive – he called a friend for a ride. On the way home, they were involved in an accident, and without a seatbelt on, he was ejected from the back center seat, through the windshield, onto the pavement. This death might have been prevented if he had remembered to buckle up, or if the driver had reminded him.
I put on a seatbelt if I’m correcting a parking spot. When taking my cat to the vet, I hook her carrier into the seatbelt. I refuse to shift into drive unless everyone in the car is bucked up correctly (yes, all three points of the harness), and you should do the same. If you don’t buckle up for yourself, do it for your family who would miss you, or your pet who would never understand why you didn’t come home. It only takes a few seconds but could buy you more years than you can imagine.
