What Are the Benefits of Seat Belts?

Seat Belts are the first line of defense against injuries or death when riding in an automobile. Taking the brief moment to buckle up could be the difference between a safe ride home or a trip to the emergency room.

Overview, Safety

Driving without a seat belt is truly gambling with your own life. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, about 43,000 people are killed in fatal car accidents each year. 63 percent of those people killed weren't wearing a seat belt. Seat belts reduce the risk of death for a front seat occupant by roughly 50 percent.

Safety

If 90 percent of Americans buckled up, 5,500 deaths and 132,000 injuries would be prevented each and every year.
Wearing a seat belt protects you, and protects those traveling in your car, so why take the risk?

Cost

You'd like to save yourself $600 a year in taxes, right? Buckle up. That's right --- inpatient hospital care for those motorists who don't wear a seat belt ranks twice as high for those who did wear a seat belt. Guess who is paying for those hospital bills? You.
85 percent of those hospital costs are picked up by taxpayers --- imagine how much lower they would be if everyone did, in fact buckle up? Who couldn't use an extra $600 every year?

Children

Children hate sitting in their car seats when they are young, so to be able to sit in the grown up seat is a huge deal for them. Encourage your kids to buckle up, so they have it ingrained in their memory at a young age to do so. Show them that Mommy and Daddy wear a seat belt, so they should too. They will be so excited to get out of their car seats, that they will be ecstatic to try on their new grownup seat belt.

Summary

Buckling a seat belt should be as common as brushing your teeth in the morning, but unfortunately, as the statistics show, it is not. Don't allow yourself, or those around you to become just another statistic. Buckle up, and remind your friends and family to do the same, even if you're just driving from one part of the parking lot to another!