The Importance of Seat Belts

Seat belts are designed to greatly reduce the risk of severe injury or death in the event of an accident. Despite decades of research proving the benefits of seatbelts, sadly, many drivers and passengers still choose not to wear them. Many injuries and fatalities resulting from car crashes could have easily been prevented had the occupants been wearing seatbelts at the time of the accident.

Seat belts prevent injury in five different ways:

• Prevent ejection of occupants: In a car crash, vehicle occupants who are not wearing seatbelts may be thrown from the car. A person ejected from a vehicle is four times as likely to die and 14 times as likely to suffer from severe spinal injury that those who are restrained within the vehicle.
• Protects the head, neck, and spinal cord: Seat belts help keep the head and upper body from colliding with hard surfaces within the interior of the vehicle.
• Redirect collision forces to the strongest parts of the body: In adults and older children, seatbelts help to load the strongest forces of the crash on the strongest parts of the body– the hips and the shoulders.
• Spread collision forces over the body rather than allowing extreme stress on one area: Rather than expose the full impact of the force to one area of the body, a seatbelt helps spread the force throughout the torso and lower body for a lessened overall impact.
• Let the body decelerate slowly: In a car crash, a fast-moving vehicle and its fast-moving occupants are suddenly jerked to a stop. The seat belt allows the occupant to face the impact in a controlled manner as a “part” of the vehicle.

Contact Us

If you or a loved one has been injured in a car accident, contact the Rhinelander car accident attorneys of Habush Habush & Rottier S.C. ® at 800-242-2874 today.