WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.
Original Post Date: 2008-12-13 Time: 05:00:07 Posted By: Jan
Despite law enforcement, fines and safety campaigns, half of South Africa’s drivers don’t wear seatbelts.
Equally horrifying is that up to 80% of rear seat passengers aren’t buckling up either.
What the rear seat passengers don’t know is that when they fail to buckle up, there’s an 84% chance they could kill the front passengers and themselves during a collision.
Automobile Association spokesperson Gary Ronald says research has proved this grisly statistic.
“They fly forward and hit the front passengers on the back of head, which is one of the most sensitive parts of the body,” says Ronald.
To date, only 20% of passengers who sit in the back of cars wear seatbelts and around 50% of front passengers and drivers wear seatbelts. This figure, Ronald says, has remained stubbornly low in recent years.
According to Ronald, most of the 20% backseat seatbelt wearers are children.
Since January this year, more than 33 000 fines have been issued for motorists not wearing seatbelts. And Joburg metro police spokesperson Superintendent Wayne Minnaar warns they will be vigorously intensifying law enforcement against people not buckling up.
“Both front and rear passengers must wear seatbelts. It is the driver’s responsibility to see that everyone below the age of 14 is strapped in. For each child that is not strapped, the driver will face a R200 fine,” Minnaar notes.
Ronald says it’s important for law enforcement agencies to pay more attention to people not wearing seatbelts.
“It’s the easiest way to save lives. If the law enforcement is done, very soon it will become a habit,” he says.
In terms of fatality reduction, the AA estimates that for every percentage point that seatbelt wearing increases, there is a potential of saving up to 100 lives.
“If we increase the compliance of front occupants to 100%, we could save up to 4 000 lives a year.”
Ronald says people have a misconception that airbags will save them during a collision, but the truth is that they work best in conjunction with seatbelts.
“If you aren’t wearing a seatbelt, the airbag deploying could hurt you a lot more. It is a secondary passive safety device. Seatbelts are still the first primary safety device. People are complacent and rely on technology to save them. The basic safety equipment needs to do its job.”
Netcare 911 spokesperson Nick Dollman says they come across a fair number of accidents which result in deaths because people weren’t strapped in.
“Most people don’t realise, it but you need superhuman strength to restrain a child during a collision. They can easily be flung though a windscreen.
“It is fairly common to see children standing between the car seats, and there is a serious possibility of them sustaining grave injuries as a result of this during a collision,” Dollman adds.
He says that if a child is on the front seat on a parent’s lap and the parent isn’t buckled up, the child could be crushed between the parent and the dashboard during a collision. The child will also bear the brunt of it when the airbag deploys – something that can cause injuries on its own.
Dollman says that when safety seats are used for children, it’s important to use the correct size and to install them properly.
“It must be used with the seatbelt mechanism, otherwise the seat can come loose and fly through the window.
“In one recent case, a car overturned and its roof collapsed, but because the safety seat was installed properly, the baby in it was not injured,” he says.
With high-speed impacts – exceeding 80km/h – it’s fairly common for people not wearing a seatbelt to be thrown through a window and being killed, either by their own car or by passing traffic.