Belt up and save lives

“Secure” is one aspect of Brake’s six part pledge for Road Safety Week 2016.

Brake are asking you to pledge that you will ensure that everyone in your vehicle is belted up on every journey and kids smaller than 150cm are in a proper child restraint. They’re also asking you to pledge that you choose a safe vehicle and ensure it is maintained. For those people who do not drive, your pledge is to belt up on every journey and make sure other people do likewise.

Why is this important I hear you ask? Well it might be a bit of a worn cliché, but seatbelts really are a lifesaver. Working within the road traffic team at Thompsons, you naturally see the damage that a car accident has on the individuals concerned. To read then that almost one in ten people confess to not wearing a seatbelt or allowing their passengers not to wear seatbelts is mindboggling. A three-point seatbelt (ie, a fairly standard seatbelt) means you’re 50% less likely to die in a crash and nearly a quarter of fatalities on the roads each year involve people not wearing a seatbelt. For the sake of the matter of seconds that it takes to click your seatbelt on, why would you risk it?   

There are some legal exceptions to the requirement to wear a seatbelt, but there’s no moral exception to ensuring that both you and your occupants are safe and secure. Belt up.

Blog by Ross Waddell