By
EWAN KENNEDY
22 May 2006
Pardon the very basic nature of the heading to this piece, but the
words of the old advertising campaign remain succinct and straight to
the point all these years down the track. Seat belts do save lives,
witness the big drop in fatalities right from the day seat belt wearing
became compulsory in Australia.
Australians are rightly proud to have
been world leaders in this life-saving safety-belt legislation, that
began in Victoria 30 years ago.
A very large percentage of people killed
in crashes are occupants not wearing seat belts. Believe it or not some
even take pride in not doing so. Sadly, I’m not joking about this
misplaced pride, some passengers are cunning enough to hold the seat
belt in their hand but not buckle it up, so that from the outside it
looks as though they are wearing the belt. If there's anything more
stupid than that I’m yet to find out what it is.
A similar idiotic trick is to only put on
the seat belt when a police car is sighted, then take it off again with
the car has passed. Not an unusual act among many young blokes in the
bush, and one about which they openly boast...
What really rankles with me is that tens
of thousands of people are legally not wearing safety belts. Truck
drivers and taxi drivers are the main culprits. How governments can look
at statistics which prove without the slightest shadow of a doubt that
seat belts save lives - then allow people to drive without them, is
beyond me.
Not wearing a seat belt is tantamount to
suicide. Which is exactly what it is in some cases. Though the subject
is usually only mentioned under the breath, there's increasing
speculation that some otherwise unexplained deaths in single-vehicle
crashes are suicides.
It would be possible to investigate
individual fatalities and come to a conclusion about personal reasons
for a crash, but there seems to be an understandable reluctance to do
so.
I really would like to see the road
safety authorities get off their simplistic ‘speed-kills’ bandwagon
and tackle the safety belt problem head on. The trouble is that it’s
so much easier (and more lucrative financially) to set up a roadside
radar trap than it is to physically look for people not wearing seat
belts.
So, always wear your seat belt. And
please get into the habit of putting it on before you start to drive,
not 100 metres down the road when you have to take your attention from
driving to find the belt, then the buckle, then finally strap yourself
in. That is if you haven't had a crash during all that fumbling around
to find the bits of belt.
