Why Should I Buckle my Safety Belt if I Am Not Going Far?
It can be very tempting for a motorist to skip wearing their seatbelt if they are only making a short journey. However, it is important to wear a seatbelt at all times, even for short journeys. A driver can never know when a crash will happen, so it is vital that they and their passengers always buckle up and try to avoid car accidents so that there's no possibility that they will be caught out.
While in a moving vehicle, wearing a seatbelt (if there is one available) is a legal requirement for any individual. If caught, a person who is not wearing their seatbelt can be fined up to £500. If the person who is not wearing their belt is under age 14, it is the driver's responsibility and they will be fined. There are currently political movements which are advocating the punishment for not buckling up to include points on a driver's license.
Increased Safety
Wearing a seatbelt offers a massive increase in safety. For example, one third of motoring fatalities are made up by people who were not wearing a seat belt. In addition, wearing a seatbelt halves the risk of a person dying if a crash occurs. It is figures like this which mean that buckling up, even for a very short trip can make the driver and passengers a far safer.
A motorist might argue that as the car is on the road for a shorter time, it is less likely to have an accident. However, for the time the car is the road it is just as likely to have a crash as for any other journey. Therefore if the driver and passengers in the car have the chance to halve their chances of fatality if an accident does happen, they would be wide to take it.
According to physics, a moving body will only come to a stop until it is forced to become stationary by another object which blocks its path. If a car were to be travelling at 50 miles per hour and crashed, causing it to slow down rapidly, the car's occupants would stay in motion, moving at 50 miles per hour until something stopped them. Seatbelts will stop them by holding them back with pressure on durable parts of their body. If they don't wear seatbelts, they will be stopped by something else, such as the windscreen or the tarmac which will cause far more damage.
Insurance
If a motorist holds an insurance policy which includes health insurance and are convicted of driving without a safety belt, they will probably have to pay a higher premium. This is because not wearing a safety belt is proven to make it more likely for a person to suffer serious injury. As a result, insurance companies will deem that this motorist is more likely to make a health insurance claim, meaning a more costly premium to cover the increased likelihood of a payout. If a motorist has to choose between wearing a safety belt and risking paying a higher premium, they would be wise to take a few seconds to buckle up.
It is clear that wearing a seatbelt can massively improve the safety of someone travelling in a car. Even for short journeys, there is still a very present risk of a collision, and if this happens, wearing a seatbelt would be a very sensible idea. Seatbelts are quick and simple to put on and have massive benefits, the time safe by not wearing one being minimal compared to the cost of not wearing one if the car is involved in a crash.