Have seat belts led to a reduction in traffic accidents?

Daniel is due 27/3/09

not really because you get injured wearing one if your in an accident and if you have an airbag and are involved in a accident the airbag injures you as well but having a seat belt does prevent you from going through the windscreen so it does help in some respects

They call me ... Trixie.

No, but they've led to a reduction in fatalities from traffic accidents.

shovelkicker

NO.

But how about a reduction in injuries and deaths!

http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/people/injury/airbags/buckleplan/mayplanner2003/factsheet.html

Del Piero 10

Definitely not. But as other respondants have said they reduces death and injury. It's like WW1 when the introduction of steel helmets increased the amount of head injuries because before their introduction anybody shot in the head would be dead.

Polo

There are still plenty of accidents, but much fewer fatalities because of seat belts.

panenka_chip

No, but they have helped to reduce the numbers of deaths and injuries from traffic accidents

skh1972

I don't think seat belts have any effect on the number of traffic accidents. It is possible that seat belts have reduced the number of fatalities/injuries.

I found this answer on-line:
Seat belts are the most effective safety devices in vehicles today, estimated to save 9,500 lives each year. Yet only 68 percent of the motor vehicle occupants are buckled. In 1996, more than 60 percent of the occupants killed in fatal crashes were unrestrained.

Also, look at this state-by-state chart about fatalities:
http://www.nsc.org/partners/adultfatal.htm

lielew20

Seat belts wont prevent or reduce accidents, proper driving and obeying speeding laws will. Seatbelts are supposed to reduce fatalities (for those that are smart enough to wear them ofcourse).

breezinabout

What an odd question? How can a seatbelt have any affect on the driving and control of a vehicle. They are they to protect you from harm if you do have a collision.

Bill H

A reduction in injuries possibly but not accidents. The belt doesn't improve a drivers luck or ability.

fade_this_rally

no, they have not..They only protect you better from the accident, they do not prevent anything.

jasminetablen

No, people are still crashing and bashing, they just may avoid death by wearing their seatbelts...It will take more than a seatbelt to show some people how to drive!!!

No they have not. They have led to a reduction in fatalities though.

Rob K

Definitely not.

If your question had been rephrased thus: -

"Has the mandatory wearing of seat belts led to a reduction in fatalities resulting from traffic accidents?"

I would have answered 'Yes'.

People need to wear the seatbelts for them to be effective.

After a head-on collision, my sister ended up with a broken collarbone and fractured wrist because she was wearing her seatbelt. It could easily have been a fatality.

A TV documentary on car safety showed that as each new safety device is fitted, people up the stakes by driving faster or more recklessly because they feel that the car will always protect them.

One safety advisor joked and said, "If there was a great, big spike, here, in the middle of the steering wheel, pointed at their chest, it would be the most dangerous thing in the world but people wouldn't take the risks..."

Nancy R

Accidents? I would think, NO. Deaths? Yes.

The Fat Controller

no not a reduction in themselves. however the number of injuries and fatalities have been greatly reduced

Tony

Seatbelts would not reduce accidents. only reduce serious injuries. That fact is there are probably more accidents now because of all of the crazy thing people do behind the wheel.

strech

Seat belts, by themselves, have not REDUCED accidents, but have reduced the severity of an accident.

Mick

Seat belts don,t cut the accident rate , but they do save life's.

ann

yes

David W

They may even have led to an increase in accidents because some drivers take more risks when they are securely strapped in. BUT - hospital eye and facial injury departments noticed an immediate reduction in serious injuries when seat belts became compulsory in the UK. Within one week of the law being enforced back in the 1980's, one eye dept that I know of noticed a 90% reduction in injuries due to people being thrown through the windscreen

Bandit600

Only when they were made compulsory years ago (UK anyway).

musonic

Well, it's the wrong question to ask, but seat-belts certainly save lives (They have caused a few deaths/injuries also). Like any safety device, seat-belts simply reduce the severity of injury.

I am always amazed by the way people drive headlong into disaster situations, yet the same people would not even think of walking through the middle of street-brawl.

Even relatively small accidents can be quite violent, and at anything above 40mph, an accident WILL result in injuries, and often quite serious ones.

If people only realised just how much technology and testing-time goes into making a racing car relatively safe at high-speed, they would soon realise that the ordinary passenger car is still quite a dangerous place to be in an accident.

Of course, if the road-safety campaigners concentrated their efforts on good-eyesight instead of cameras and "shock horror" poster campaigns, they might achieve something.

An awful lot of drivers are virtually blind; especially at night.

You can wrap them in seat-belts, but that isn't much good if their eyes are wrapped in blindfolds.

lutfi

yes. definitely. because buckle up give your body more time to collide with the dashboard or stearing. these will reduce the impulse (the force acting within short time) on your body. these can be known by application of physics findings. on this case, it is force, momentum and impluse theory are applied.

the seat belts are on of the reduction in the collision impulse.
others are air bags, crumple zone of bumper and soft plastics dash boards.

Steve71

Yes, seatbelts definitely can reduce accidents and their severity. By keeping the driver upright in the driving position seatbelts allow the driver more time to recover control after an accident begins. You can't do much for yourself or your passengers once you've been tossed out of your seat.

important2

yes

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