Seat Belts, Everyone!

My grandfather, a deputy sheriff, was called to the scene of his parents’ deaths. At the time, seat belts were not a requirement—the car his parents drove may not have even been equipped with them at all—so they were commonly unavailable or unused. While I’m unsure about the whereabouts and severity of the condition of my great-grandfather’s body, my great-grandmother had been ejected from the car and ran over, leaving her mangled. The only way that my grandfather could identify her was by the dress she wore. As could be imagined, my grandfather was quite traumatized from the experienced, not only from seeing their dead bodies but the horrific state in which their bodies had been injured. While he did share the general details of their deaths, it took him decades to be able to describe the specifics of the event.

Though it would have been expected that the family would learn from this experience, following this incident years later, my mother’s cousin died of a similar situation: no seatbelt and ejected out the window of the car. Just recently, my mother’s uncle also succumbed to the same fate. Within the last fifty years, that accounts for 4 deaths all from the same culprit. It could be assumed that genetic idiocy could be involved in this, but I think it was simply the lack of true education.

Although I frequently wore a seat belt, there were times where I would think to myself, “Oh, it’ll be fine—we’re almost home” or “It’s a short trip, so it won’t matter” and the seat belt will be left hanging by the side of my seat; however it wasn’t until a video that was presented to me by a group in Utah aiming to reduce deaths on the road, that I truly understood the risk of neglecting the use of one. The video was of test dummies within a vehicle crash. There were several tests of varying degrees of accidents, each one showing the passengers within. I watched as the test dummies without seatbelts were tossed helplessly around the car, their limbs flailing, and some were even ejected out the window like my family members had been. What was most surprising were the crashes in which some were seat belted, and some were not, which resulted in the unseat belted to be thrown into the seat belted passengers. In every situation, the car with the completely seat belted crew sustained less trauma than those without.

I wish that I could have shown my family this video. Although it’s been preached recently of the importance of seat belts, that video felt like a major eye opener. Though they had no expressions, I could almost feel the vulnerability and powerlessness emanating from them as an invisible form threw them from one end of the car to the other. In that moment of watching it, in my mind I could envision myself in their position being tossed to and fro. To connect that with the deaths of my family members was almost too much for me. Yet, I will never forget to put my seat belt on when I climb into the car—in fact, it has become completely instinctual, reaching for the seat belt.

I want to focus on the passengers with the unseat belted ones. While seat belt use has increased within the states, there are still many deaths that result from seat belt absence. “In 2021, 26,325 passenger vehicle occupants were killed, 50% of those killed were not buckled” (“Seat Belts”, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, para. 2). 50%, meaning only half were not seat belted. Based off the video shown by the group, that could mean that the seat belted passengers could have been seriously injured, leading to a higher risk of death or even causing death, by the impact of the unseat belted person thrown into them. That lack of a seat belt could have caused the harm of not only the unseat belted’s life but the others’ lives around them.

When I shared this information with others, I learned that this wasn’t just a new discovery for myself but for them, too. Understandably, seat belts can be perceived as an individual responsibility, and if that responsibility is unkept, it would only negatively impact themselves. Within driver’s education, it should be made clear that it does not only protect the life of the wearer, but the lives of others. This information may be best spread through video so that it can be interpreted in similar ways through visuals despite various languages, cultures, and backgrounds. I know that for myself and the others that I spoke to, our seat belt use has increased as we are aware of the people around us, and I’m sure that if others are informed of this that seat belt use will continue to increase.