Unit 05 , Lesson 11 - Safety Belts, Safety Seats, and Air Bags
Motor vehicle crashes are the major cause of death and injury to individuals up to the age of 24, which creates a major health problem in Utah. The possibility of a serious crash on one of the many trips in your lifetime is greater than 50%. Ask your friends how many have never been in a crash--the percentage will be low.
Safety Belts
- Buckle Up, It’s The Law. Utah law requires the driver and all passengers to be buckled if a seat belt is available.
- Your chances of being killed are 23 times greater if you are thrown from a car. Wearing safety belts help keep you in the car.
- Four out of five crashes occur at speeds less than 40 mph, with deaths occurring at speeds as low as 12 mph. A safety belt should be worn at any speed, regardless of how slow you are moving.
- In a crash, your body weight is multiplied by the speed of the car. For example, if you weigh 150 pounds and crash while traveling 30 mph, your body would hit with a force of 4,500 pounds. There is no way you can brace yourself against that much force.
- Three out of four crashes resulting in death are within 25 miles of home. Not using a safety belt because you are just going to the store is a poor excuse--and dangerous.
- Fire or submersion occurs in less than half of one percent of all injury-producing collisions. If fire or submersion does occur, a safety belt may keep you from being injured or knocked unconscious, thus increasing your chances to escape.
- Drivers wearing safety belts have more control over their vehicles in emergency situations and are more likely to avoid a crash.
- In Utah, approximately two out of three motor vehicle deaths would not happen if safety belts were worn.
- Persons not complying with the safety belt law may be required to pay a fine.
- You may be stopped and cited if anyone under 19 years is unrestrained.
- Occupants of the vehicle 19 years and older may be cited for a seat belt violation if stopped for some other reason.
Three-point seatbelt illustration: By PMcM, Liftarn, GFDL, via Wikimedia Commons
Child Safety
Approximately 1400 Utah children under the age of five are injured and 15 to 20 are killed each year in motor vehicle crashes. One out of every 57 children born in Utah will be seriously injured or killed in a motor vehicle crash before age five, unless he or she is using a car safety seat or safety belt. Unfortunately, only about 44% of the children in Utah regularly ride in a safety seat. These facts constitute a major public health concern for the State of Utah. Compliance with child passenger safety laws decreases the number of deaths and injuries to young children.
In an effort to increase child safety in motor vehicles, laws have been enacted which require certain actions by all drivers in Utah. The laws provide that:
- Children under age EIGHT (8) must be properly restrained in an approved car safety seat.
- The driver must provide for the protection of each person of EIGHT (8) years of age up to 16 years of age by using an appropriate child restraint device or a properly adjusted and fastened safety belt.
- Authorized emergency vehicles, mopeds, vehicles not equipped with safety belts by the manufacturer, motorcycles, school buses and vehicles that provide transportation for hire are exempt from this law.
- Car safety seats must be dynamically crash tested in order to be approved. Safety seats manufactured after January 1, 1981, according to the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS), are the safest seats available.
NOTE: A child who is under EIGHT (8) years of age and is 57 inches tall or taller is exempt from the requirement to be in a child restraint device and shall use a properly adjusted and fastened safety belt.
Child Safety Seats: By Tracybenn (Own work), GFDL, via Wikimedia Commons
Air Bags
Air bags work! They save lives. But they do their job best when everyone is buckled and children are properly restrained in the back seat.
An air bag is not a soft, billowy pillow. To do its important job, an air bag comes out of the dashboard at up to 200 mph - faster than the blink of an eye. The force of an air bag can hurt those who are too close to it. Drivers can entirely eliminate any danger to children from a deploying air bag by placing children properly restrained in the back seat. With or without an air bag, the back seat is the safest seat for children to ride.
It is a “Class B” misdemeanor if you remove, fail to have repaired, or modify your vehicle’s air bag passive restraint system with the intention of rendering the air bag inoperable.
Air bag related injuries can be prevented by following these critical safety points:
- Children 12 and under should ride buckled up in a rear seat.
- Infants should NEVER ride in the front seat of a vehicle with a passenger-side air bag.
- Small children should ride in a rear seat in child safety seats approved for their age and size.
- Everyone should buckle up with both lap AND shoulder belts on every trip.
- Driver and front seat passengers should be moved as far back as practical.