Fastening your seat belts is free. You already bought them with the car.

This action takes only seconds. We all have that much time to spare for a life-saving action, agreed?

The fascinating thing about human behavior is that it is so wonderfully illogical and unpredictable.  However, this is not one of the times when it is wonderful or interesting.

In addition to reminding people to fasten their seat belts, local officials in the metropolitan Washington area stressed that people also needed to buckle up at night. It seems  that many day-time bucklers somehow don’t remember at night.

So. 24/7 buckling up is a free, fast way to possibly save your life or, at the very least, save you from preventable injuries.

Once I went to Annapolis when the hospital for which I worked needed to provide testimony about trauma transportation and travel times. One of the doctors involved was the chief of trauma. As we came out of the building, there was an April snowstorm—a specialty here—with fat, wet flakes, which melted on contact and promptly formed ice. When we got in the car, I was fussing around with papers and my briefcase before buckling up—but did not say so.

“Please tell me you are going to fasten your seat belt,” he said. “It would be truly humiliating for us to be in a wreck without them,” he said. Yes. Given that we worked in a hospital with a trauma center, humiliating would be the only right word for it. Even this daredevil surgeon was religious about this practice. If he did it, everyone should.

Don’t be humiliated. Don’t get hurt or killed.

Don’t forget. Day and night, reach for that seat belt. People who love you want you to be here.

Surprise everyone. Remember.

The Washington Post

“… cited the latest data from the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration, which show that daily, about 38 people who aren’t wearing seat belts die in crashes. Young men and those who drive pickups are less likely than others to wear seat belts. (Emphasis added)

“Wearing your seat belt costs you nothing,” LaHood said. “Not buckling up can cost you everything.”

“The first widespread use of seat belts in cars was in the 1960s, a decade after studies debunked the notion that most people who died in collisions were killed by the accordion-like collapse of their cars. (Emphasis added)

“An Indiana study in 1953 determined that 453 of 633 people killed in car crashes had died from being thrown from the car or tossed about inside, and it came to a number of conclusions that are accepted as common knowledge today, including that a shoulder strap combination is better than a single lap belt.”

Source: Washington Post, May 25, 2010