Seat belt safety saves lives

May 24--Editor's note: May is Seat Belt Awareness Month. And with the Memorial Weekend holiday fast approaching and law enforcement's stepped-up safety efforts, the importance of wearing a seat belt takes on added importance. Here's a look at the law and how it saves lives.

ASHEBORO -- Across the state during May, law enforcement officers will be participating in the Seat Belt Safety Program in an effort to ensure all motor vehicle occupants are buckled up and to reduce the risk of injury and death caused in traffic crashes.

For drivers and front-seat passengers, using a lap and shoulder belt reduces the risk of fatal injury by 60 percent in an SUV, van or pickup, and by 45 percent in a car, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

"It's tougher now for us to find seat belt violations," said First Sgt. Brett Snotherly with the N.C. Highway Patrol in Asheboro. "I encourage my troopers to look for those violations. Every day, the top three things we focus on are seat belt violations, speeding and driving while impaired.

"We know that seat belts truly do save lives."

The N.C. Governor's Highway Safety Program's (GHSP) Annual Statewide Seat Belt Survey reports that 89.9 percent of front seat drivers and passengers wear their seat belts. However, unrestrained serious injuries increased in North Carolina from 395 in 2014 to 436 in 2015. Unrestrained fatalities increased from 374 in 2014 to 415 in 2015.

Seat belt use is considered one of the most effective ways to save lives and reduce injuries in crashes, yet there are still those who choose not to wear their seat belts while driving.

"We had a total of 21 fatalities involving 20 fatal crashes in 2015," Snotherly added, about Randolph County fatalities. "Of those, eight were not restrained. So far in 2016, we have had seven fatalities and only one was not wearing a seat belt."

How effective?

In both the front seat and the back seat, safety belts reduce the risk of serious injury or death in a crash. Research has shown a 45 percent reduction in the risk of a fatal injury to front-seat car occupants when lap and shoulder belts are used. The risk of a moderate to critical injury is reduced by half.

For people in front seats of SUVs, vans and pickups, the use of lap and shoulder belts reduces the risk of a fatal injury by 60 percent and a moderate to critical injury by 65 percent.

Among back-seat occupants in cars, lap and shoulder belts reduce the risk of fatal injury by 44 percent; among back-seat occupants of vans and SUVs, the reduction is 73 percent.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimates that safety belts saved the lives of 12,584 people in 2013 and more than 62,000 lives during the five-year period from 2009 through 2013. An additional 2,800 lives could have been saved in 2013 if all passenger vehicle occupants older than age 4 had used safety belts.

Regardless of vehicle type, time of day or seating position, wearing a seat belt is the single most effective way to reduce fatalities in motor vehicle crashes, authorities say. In 2015, 42 percent of passenger vehicle fatalities in North Carolina were drivers or passengers not wearing seat belts.

"The faster you go, the more probability of being involved in a crash," Snotherly said. "Speeding and not wearing a seat belt is not a good combination. If you are in an accident and the car flips (or rolls) and you are not wearing a seat belt, there is a good chance you will be thrown out of the vehicle.

"The odds are high that you will be seriously injured or lose your life. Some people just don't want to wear a seat belt. We get as the biggest argument, that it is their right to not wear one if they don't want to. A ticket for not wearing your seat belt is a $179 fine, but that can be a great charge when you consider that it is better than losing your life ..."

"This is a huge focus of mine and something I truly believe saves lives," he added. "We look at it as saving lives and we are starting to gain compliance from drivers through traffic enforcement.

"People need to understand that driving a vehicle is a privilege, not a right, and using a seat belt is the law."

'Seat belt saved my life'

ASHEBORO -- Asheboro resident Tony Bolick was 18 when wearing a seat belt saved his life.

"I got up on a Friday morning, took the day off from school to travel from Conover down to St. Andrews Presbyterian College for my first college campus visit," he said. "I was cruising in a 1973 Mercury Cougar XR-7, one of those early models that had the shoulder belt hooked across the roof-line just inside the door window as an option with just a lap belt."

Bolick remembers the accident happening in a particularly sharp curvy "S" area driving south on N.C. 16 just outside of Denver, N.C.

"I was running about 55 mph in the curves, I had all my windows down and a newspaper and other stuff in my passenger seat and was driving into the sun," he said. "I had some papers blow up, and when I was trying to swat them away and put them back down, I knocked my sunglasses askew as I was entering the last couple of turns in that area.

"I really couldn't see into the sunlight and when I fixed my glasses, I had run off the road -- at speed -- so I took my foot off the gas and was preparing to ease the car back on the road, just like they always teach. Unfortunately, they don't teach you about when your car runs across a driveway connected to said road. When the tires hit the concrete, the car was at an awkward angle and the tires grabbed, turning them hard left, swirling the wheel out of my hands and the car skidded sideways and shot across the road.

"I could see the world flying by sideways and had just a fraction of a second to think to myself, 'This is gonna hurt.' "

Bolick said that the front of the car dug into the ground on the other side of a shallow ditch for about a foot just before slamming head-on into a 4-foot diameter cedar tree. The car somehow bounced off it, hitting it again sideways just behind the driver's door. The front end hit the left corner of the 6-foot concrete block foundation under the front porch of an old two-story house. The car spun around in the grassy area in front of the house before hitting a second tree, coming to rest, nose first in the ditch.

Bolick remembers being dazed and trying to get out of the car, but the door wouldn't open. He crawled over the car's console and pushed open the passenger door to escape.

"I wound up sitting down on the ground and waited on the cops and ambulance to show up," he said. "My head hurt and my legs were a little sore. After an extended ER visit, I was okay but had a pretty big goose egg on my head and a couple small scratches from hitting the steering wheel.

"While I didn't have a shoulder portion down, there is no doubt that the seat belt saved my life. Needless to say, I was very lucky and that lap belt had everything to do with it."

Primary enforcement laws

North Carolina law requires all occupants in the front and rear seats of a passenger vehicle to be properly restrained by using a seat belt. Many passengers feel they are safer in the rear seat and do not need to wear a seat belt; however, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates 58 percent of rear seat passenger fatalities were unrestrained in 2014 compared to the 47 percent in the front seat.

Currently, 30 states, including North Carolina, have a primary enforcement law covering all seating positions.

"Unrestrained fatalities could be prevented by taking three seconds when you get into a vehicle -- by the simple act of wearing a seat belt," said Don Nail, director of the The N.C. Governor's Highway Safety Program. "Our message is simple, buckle up in every seat, every time. Time after time, we see the deadly results that come from drivers and passengers refusing to wear a seat belt.

"Law enforcement will stop those who are not buckled up -- strict enforcement now means lives saved later."

Teens and young adults also have a higher risk of a crash due to driver inexperience and impaired driving. Air bags also help reduce injury in crashes, but only when used with seat belts. In addition, due to the force of air bags in a crash, children should ride in the back seat of a vehicle until they are at least 13 years old.

Just the facts

How big is the problem of crash-related injuries and death?

-- Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death among teens.

-- Young adults (18-24) have the highest crash-related injury rates of all adults.

What is the impact of seat belt use?

-- Seat belts reduce serious crash-related injuries and deaths by about half.

-- Air bags provide added protection but are not a substitute for seat belts.

Who is least likely to wear a seat belt?

-- Of the teens (ages 13-20 years) who died in crashes in the last five years, approximately 55 percent were not wearing a seat belt at the time of the crash.

-- Adults, ages 18-34, are less likely to wear seat belts than adults, ages 35 or older.

-- Men are 10 percent less likely to wear seat belts than women.

-- Adults who live in rural areas are 10 percent less likely to wear seat belts (78 percent use) than adults who live in urban and suburban areas (87 percent use).

-- Rear-seat motor vehicle passengers are less likely than front-seat passengers to wear a seat belt.

What can be done to increase seat belt use among adults?

-- Use a seat belt on every trip, no matter how short. This sets a good example.

-- Make sure children are properly buckled up in a car seat, booster seat or seat belt, whichever is appropriate for their age, height and weight.

-- Have all children, ages 12 and under, sit properly buckled in the back seat.

-- Remember to never place a rear-facing child safety seat in front of an air bag.

-- Properly buckle children in the middle back seat when possible because it is the safest spot in the vehicle.

-- Drivers and all passengers, ages 16 and older, must wear seat belts.

-- The full restraint system provided for the seating position must be properly worn. Both the lap and shoulder belt must be properly worn even if the position is equipped with an automatic shoulder belt or air bag. Placing the shoulder belt behind the back or under the arm is not allowed.

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(c)2016 The Courier-Tribune, Asheboro, N.C.

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