Seat Belt Effectiveness: The Effectiveness Of Wear

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Seat Belt Effectiveness 1 Running head: SEAT BELT EFFECTIVENESS Seat Belt Effectiveness: The Effectiveness of Wearing a Seat Belt and Why It Should Be Mandatory Tim Hayduk University Of Manitoba Seat Belt Effectiveness 2 Introduction The first seat belt installed in a car was in 1849, by the car company Volvo (Bellis, 2011, para. 1). Although this seat belt was nothing like ones today, it was the first attempt to provide safety to a vehicles occupants in the event of an accident. Today seat belts are installed in every make and model of vehicles. Sadly, still not everyone chooses to use them. Millions of lives have been lost and billions of dollars have been spent because people choose not to buckle up when they are in a motor vehicle ( Rutlegde et al., 1993, p.126). If people knew something could save their lives in a vehicle accident wouldn't they use it? In order to reduce injuries, deaths and subsequent medical bills totaling in the millions each year, seat belt laws and regulations need to be followed and enforced to the highest standards. The first reason that seat belts should be mandatory is that seat belts reduce the risk of injuries to a vehicles occupants in the event of an accident. Seat belts restrain a vehicles occupants in the event of a crash limiting major and minor injuries, primarily to the head. Permanent injury is 50% more likely to occur in a vehicle accident when not wearing a seat belt (JMU, 2004, para.1). A study done lead by Rutledge (1993) on people involved in car accidents showed that 44.5% of people in a car accident not wearing a seat belt suffered head injuries. The study also showed that the average amount of days spent in a hospital after a car accident when the victim was wearing a seat belt was 10.5. The average amount of days spent in a hospital for a car crash victim not wearing a
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