Arrive Alive estimates that less than half of all passengers use seatbelts in the back seat of a car. By not doing so they endanger their own lives and those of front seat passengers and drivers as well.
They say not enough emphasis is placed on encouraging back seat passengers to buckle up and urge drivers to check their passenger’s seat belts as well as their own. They believe many lives could be saved in South Africa where around 10 000 people die and another 150 000 people are injured in road traffic accidents every year.
The human loss is traumatic but the economic cost is huge. The bills for police and emergency services, damage to vehicles and property, and lost output cost the country an estimated R12 billion per annum.
It is compulsory for passengers and drivers to wear seatbelts in terms of regulation 213(4)of the National Road Traffic Regulation, under the National Road Traffic Act, 1996 (Act No 93 of 1996).
If the seatbelt is not in a good working order, a R200 fine will be issued.
Regulation 213 also states: “A driver is made responsible for every person in the vehicle for wearing a seatbelt.”
Arrive Alive's advice is to:
Always wear your seat belt on and see that everyone in the car is wearing theirs.
Always put children in a proper child seat or harness: In a 50 kilometre an hour crash, a four-year-old weighing 20 kilograms will hit the first solid object with a force of 400 kilograms. Using a properly fitted child seat or restraint can reduce fatal injuries by up to 75%.
Always place any loose items in the car boot. When a car comes to a sudden halt in an accident, a map or book on the back shelf will hit car occupants with the force of a karate kick. A camera becomes a hand grenade, an umbrella a deadly missile. The family shopping can kill. Put them in the boot.
Always adjust the seat and the head restraint. It is a head restraint not a head rest and it is there to prevent or reduce whiplash which is the most common form of injury in a car crash.
Arrive Alive estimates that less than half of all passengers use seatbelts in the back seat of a car. By not doing so they endanger their own lives and those of front seat passengers and drivers as well.
They say not enough emphasis is placed on encouraging back seat passengers to buckle up and urge drivers to check their passenger’s seat belts as well as their own. They believe many lives could be saved in South Africa where around 10 000 people die and another 150 000 people are injured in road traffic accidents every year.
The human loss is traumatic but the economic cost is huge. The bills for police and emergency services, damage to vehicles and property, and lost output cost the country an estimated R12 billion per annum.
It is compulsory for passengers and drivers to wear seatbelts in terms of regulation 213(4)of the National Road Traffic Regulation, under the National Road Traffic Act, 1996 (Act No 93 of 1996).
If the seatbelt is not in a good working order, a R200 fine will be issued.
Regulation 213 also states: “A driver is made responsible for every person in the vehicle for wearing a seatbelt.”
Arrive Alive's advice is to:
Always wear your seat belt on and see that everyone in the car is wearing theirs.
Always put children in a proper child seat or harness: In a 50 kilometre an hour crash, a four-year-old weighing 20 kilograms will hit the first solid object with a force of 400 kilograms. Using a properly fitted child seat or restraint can reduce fatal injuries by up to 75%.
Always place any loose items in the car boot. When a car comes to a sudden halt in an accident, a map or book on the back shelf will hit car occupants with the force of a karate kick. A camera becomes a hand grenade, an umbrella a deadly missile. The family shopping can kill. Put them in the boot.
Always adjust the seat and the head restraint. It is a head restraint not a head rest and it is there to prevent or reduce whiplash which is the most common form of injury in a car crash.
