Seatbelts

Seatbelts play an important role in security and safety, nowadays they can be found in almost every type of transportation means such as automobiles, airplanes, trains, etc. and their use is mandatory in many parts of the world. It has been proved that wearing a seat belt can make a difference between a person’s life or death. For example, during the impact in a car accident, the personexperiences the force of halt; as a result, this person will stop with the car If he is wearing a seatbelt, but if he is not, he will move forward hitting different hard parts of the car like the windshield or be thrown out of the vehicle being very seriously injured or even dying. Not wearing a seat belt certainly increases the number of deaths in car accidents; therefore, the use of seatbelt should bemandatory for every person inside a vehicle in any part of the world.
According to Carpenter and Stehr, (2008), seatbelts laws adopted by the states during 1991 and 2005, this period was effective at increasing seatbelt use and reducing fatalities and crash-related serious injuries. Seatbelts save lives however there are many who think that seatbelts can cause injury. Technology and theiradvances in vehicles have help reducing these injuries and make them more comfortable for people to use, (Smith and Hall, 2005).

Ever since, the inclusion of seatbelts as safety equipment on cars has clearly helped declining fatalities in car accidents. According to the US Department of transportation “the number of fatalities reported at the end of 2009 reached the lowest since 1954”. The number oftraffic fatalities in 2009 was at 33,963 this means that it dropped 8.9 percent as compared to 2008 which counted 37,261 deaths. The statistics of traffic fatalities have clearly been declining year by year, (Kilcarr 2010).


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But why exactly are fatalities in crashes declining year by year? One of the reasons is that both police and government are being stricter and stricterregarding traffic laws; people find prevention information everywhere: on television, internet, radio, etc. Notices like “not drinking when driving”, “reduce speed limit”, “fasten your seatbelt”, etc. Despite all that, there are still people who choose not to wear seat belts even though they know that it is for their own protection. Some people may argue that seatbelt is uncomfortable; others may saythat they are not traveling far, or that they drive at slow speed and do not need it, others may even say that there is other safety equipment on the car such as airbag. People acting like that are but a motivation for authorities to keep making people aware of the belts importance.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the decline of fatalities in accidents is to agreat extent attributed to factors like enforcement campaigns such as “click or ticket” and “drunk driving, over the limit. Under arrest” (Kilcarr ,2010). A primary standard officer can stop a driver for not wearing a seatbelt and the secondary standard enforcement officer can stop a vehicle for another infraction plus a citation for not wearing a safety belt. A number of surveyed people agreedthat officers should stop a driver if he is not wearing a seatbelt which shows that the majority of people are for the application of the safety measurement (NHTSA 2005). Finally, different studies have evidenced that higher fines result in higher safety belt use rates; therefore, “incentive programs should increase the use of seatbelts encouraging states to adopt more effective laws, strongpenalties, and highly visible and educational programs”, (NHTSA 2005).



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Now we want to use a seat belt, but what kind must we use to keep ourselves from being hurt by it instead of being saved? According to Murphy, J (1999), “lap-only belts are not only inferior to lap/shoulder belts in preventing injuries but can actually cause serious injuries and deaths”. A great debate is...