Medical experts agree that the failure to buckle up contributes to many road deaths!! The reason other countries have lower death rates on the road is because they have higher seatbelt wearing rates.
It is essential that both driver and passengers buckle up. You must buckle up your children at every opportunity whether they are two or 22 years old!!
The head of department of trauma at Red Cross Children’s Hospital in Cape Town, Professor Sebastian von As said that if an accident happens and a child is thrown out of the car, there is a 75 percent chance that the child will die.
“Trauma kills more people under the age of 18 than any disease and the children most severely injured are from motor vehicle accidents,” he said.
“The majority killed are pedestrians, but the second biggest number are those children thrown out of the car.”
Von As said: “Children that are loose in the car are usually thrown and they become like missiles. If a child is in the back seat and the car has a collision travelling at 80km/h, when the car comes to a stop the child becomes a projectile that can even decapitate the people sitting in the front seat.”
He was equally vehement about the dangers of simply holding children on an adult’s lap.
“Often parents are under the impression that it is okay for the child to be on their lap or held in their arms, but this is useless in an accident because of the huge forces (of gravity) are involved.”
We would like to urge all motorists to buckle up before the vehicle starts moving!!
