Healthy You Article – November 23, 2007

Buckle Up for Safety
By Mary Perkins – Wellness Center Manager

Thanksgiving signals the beginning of a festive time of the year.  For many, it is the first of several weekends of family gatherings, shopping sprees, and over-indulgences.  It is also often the beginning of the winter season making for slick, slushy roads, rapid changes in temperature, and less daylight.  Many of us feel like we could sleep many more hours and are not as quick to respond as we were during the summer.  All of these factors make it even more important that drivers of motor vehicles follow and enforce safe driving habits every time they get into a car.

The National Safety Council ( www.nsc.org ) urges everyone to buckle up this Thanksgiving holiday, and to never drink and drive. The Council’s 2007 estimate of Thanksgiving traffic fatalities expects 564 people will be killed and 29,300 will be injured in motor vehicle crashes during the 4.25-day holiday period. Yet the Council also projects that seat belts will be responsible for saving nearly 500 lives during the same period.

Regular seat belt use is the single most effective way to protect people and reduce fatalities in motor vehicle crashes.  Research has shown that when lap/shoulder belts are used properly, the risk of fatal injury to front seat passenger car occupants is reduced by 45 percent, and the risk of moderate-to-critical injury is reduced by 50 percent.  Yet nearly one in five Americans (19 percent nationally) still fails to regularly wear their seat belts when driving in a motor vehicle.  Although seat belt use reached 82 percent nationally in 2005, too many Americans still choose not to regularly wear their seat belts.  (Buckle Up America, www.BuckleUpAmerica.org)

Who’s not Buckling up – Daytime vs. Nighttime?

*Fifty nine percent of the passenger vehicle occupants killed during the night were unbelted – compared to 44 percent during the day. 
*Belt use is much lower in the rear seat than the front.  A detailed survey in 2005 showed that only 68 percent of rear seat passengers were belted compared to 82 percent in the front seat.
*Men – especially younger men – are much less likely to buckle up than women.  In 2005, 67 percent of male drivers and 74 percent of male passengers of passenger vehicles, between the ages of 18 and 34 who were killed in crashes were NOT wearing their seat belts.

Pickup Drivers, Please Buckle Up
*According to NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration), pickup truck drivers and passengers consistently have the lowest seat belt usage rates of all motorists.
*In 2005, the observed seat belt use rate in pickup trucks was only 73 percent compared to 83 percent in passenger cars and 85 percent in vans and SUVs.
*In 2005, 65 percent of pickup truck occupants who were killed in traffic crashes were not buckled up.

Please Buckle up On Rural Roadways
*Americans driving or riding on rural roadways also face a much greater risk of being injured or killed in traffic crashes than do those in urban and suburban areas.
*Seat belt use in the nation’s rural areas consistently trails the national average.
*Nationally, in 2005, only 79 percent of rural drivers and their passengers were observed wearing their seat belts compared to 81 percent for urban motorists and 83 percent among suburban motorists.

Buckle Up, America.  Every Trip, Every Time
Many part-time seat belt users say they forget or just fail to wear their seat belts on shorter trips or when traveling close to home.  Yet, deadly traffic crashes can and do happen anywhere at any time – in your neighborhood, on your way to work, when driving your kids to school, or when running errands close to home. 

Have a Safe Holiday Season
While there is no absolute guarantee of a safe holiday season, reducing the chances of death and injury while on the roadways by buckling your seat belt seems to be a huge return for a small investment of time.  As the driver of a motor vehicle, it is your responsibility to ensure the safety of yourself and your passengers by, 1) buckling up your own seat belt, and 2) not putting the car in gear until all passengers have buckled their seatbelts as well.

Here’s to a safe, happy holiday season to you and your loved ones.

"HEALTHY YOU” is a weekly column prepared by health care providers and staff at North Country Hospital and Health System. For information or to suggest a topic for this column, please call Mary Perkins, Wellness Center Manager, 334-3226, or email mperkins@nchsi.org.