Buckle Up!

When I was around ten years old, my mom and I were in a devastating accident on the way to school; when I was 13, my grandpa nearly died in an accident that completely altered his life; just two years ago, my mom wrecked another car and was hospitalized once again; this last year I crashed my first car, and it was deemed totaled. Despite the number of accidents we have been in as a family, I believe we’re all excellent drivers. We all make good decisions and drive carefully to a point that isn’t dangerous. However, accidents happen, and the one thing that is common with all of the accidents we’ve faced is everyone in the car is wearing their seatbelt.

Growing up, my dad would never start the car until he heard a click. Something that was very embarrassing to me at the time when I had friends over who weren’t accustomed to wearing the belts at all. It was awkward, and even after the accident I was in with my mom, I thought it was unnecessary. The thing is, seatbelts really do save lives. I don’t mean to sound like the signs seen when coasting down the highway, but they really do. Every accident that I have been in has left a bruise that goes across my chest where the seat belt lay. It’s unimaginable what could have happened if I hadn’t had one on and that same force exerted on me was exerted on the steering wheel or the windshield. This no-brainer for me does not appear the same for many other people. Many surveys reveal that around 10% of people still do not wear seatbelts. That may seem low, but that means that one in ten people are confident enough in this decision to report to the survey that they don’t wear one, meaning many more don’t and are ashamed of it. On average, this would mean that in at least one in every five accidents, a participant is not wearing a seatbelt. This may not always be deadly, but it might be close, in my experience with accidents.

This data is everywhere on the internet, and even advertised on highway signs, so why are people still waiting to take the hint? It comes down to believing that something like that wouldn’t happen to you and being accustomed to no seatbelt. Many people in America grow up in rural areas, taking their trucks out to the pasture or riding on dirt roads carefree. Seatbelts are likely the last thing they worry about, and they carry this worry into their lives. The tradition of not wearing one becomes a habit, and this has carried on for generations. Because choosing not to wear a seatbelt is such an easy choice, they believe that something like a severe automobile accident would never happen to them, but they’re wrong. The average American gets in around three to four accidents over their lifetime, and the people who choose not to wear a seatbelt are the ones who may not make it.

The choice of whether or not to be a safe driver comes down to the individual. Everyone has free will in this choice despite laws or regulations regarding it. Especially in rural America, people aren’t going to respond to governmental intervention over something they have been accustomed to their whole life. The only thing that will actually help buckle up those who aren’t already is education. It sounds so simple, but informing someone is the best way to get them to practice safe driving. No one will listen to demands that go against their already formed habits, but to educate them is to inspire. People feel powerful when they get to make their own decisions, so we must allow them to. By educating them on the danger of not wearing seatbelts, they get to make their own choice still, but this time, a better one. While regulations won’t be effective in making this choice, they will help people get the proper education they need. Governmental mandates must be put in place to force education on drivers. Similar to how no one will respond to a law requiring seat belts, no one will react to education just thrown at them. There needs to be an obligation, and required classes that focus on the safety of seatbelts would help illuminate the necessity for this practice. The last thing people can do is do it themselves. It sounds self-explanatory, but wearing a seatbelt whenever possible goes a long way. Service leadership will influence others to make better choices and ultimately be safer drivers. Seatbelts are the number one problem with automobile accidents, and education is the best way to halt this behavior.