The absolute number one proactive safety measure that every individual should take is to buckle your seat belt when you get in your vehicle - and make sure everyone else is appropriately belted in as well. Consider the following statistics about seat belts and their use.
*Survivors of vehicle collision who were wearing seatbelts experience medical costs that are only half as great as their non-seatbelt wearing counterparts.
*Only 85% of vehicle occupants wear a seatbelt during the week and only 80% of vehicle occupants in rural areas wear seatbelts at any time.
*There is only 90% compliance with seat belt use by freeway drivers.
*In one state alone five hundred people died in automobile accidents because they were not wearing a seatbelt - last year alone. One source states that nearly fifteen thousand people across the country died from not wearing their seat belt.
*In states where law enforcement may pull over drivers and ticket them for not wearing a seat belt - there is nearly universal compliance. Other states may only ticket drivers for not using a seat belt if it is a secondary finding after the driver was pulled over for a separate offense.
*Children who were fatally injured in a vehicle accident were improperly restrained or simply not buckled in at all - in 80% of the reported deaths.
Frankly, with the amount of overwhelming evidence to support the proposition that seat belts save lives it is impossible to understand why anyone would get in a vehicle and fail to buckle up.
Greg Baumgartner is a Texas personal injury lawyer and the founder of the Baumgartner law firm, which is dedicated to helping personal injury victims seek civil justice. If you would like to speak with a Houston auto accident lawyer call the Baumgartner firm.
