In this paper I will inform you on seat belts and seat belt law, and tell you how they really save lives. In 1949 American car manufacturers Nash offered seat belts as options. The carmaker Ford started offering seat belts in 1955 as an available option. In 1958 when the Saab GT 759 was introduced at the New York Motor Show in 1958 safety belts were fitted as standard equipment on cars, and after this show safety belts (AKA seat belts) became common.
In 1968 it became a federal law that all motor vehicles, except buses, had to be equipped with seat belts in all designated seating positions. This is when you started seeing the lap belts. They later modified it to where the vehicle has to have a three-point seat belt. The three-point seat belt starts at your shoulder crosses your breastbone going to…show more content… Why does the government care if we choose to not buckle up? Did you know “motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death among teens?” (cdc.gov) How many of those deaths could have been prevented by simply buckling up before taking off? “Seat belts reduce serious crash-related injuries and deaths by about half.” (cdc.gov) “Of the teens (aged 13-20 years) that died in crashes in 2012, approximately 55% of them were not wearing a seat belt at the time of the crash.” (cdc.gov) For me, that percentage is entirely too high. Some more statistics from cdc.gov: “Men are 10% less likely to wear seat belts then women. Adults age 18-34 are less likely to wear seat belts than adults 35 or older. Non-fatal crash injuries resulted in more than $50 billion in lifetime medical and work loss costs in 2012.”
So what can we do to put a dent in the mortality rate due to no seat belts? We can make wearing a seat belt a habit instead of just a law, set examples for younger people and to people around us by always wearing our seat belts, and always use seat belts no matter what! This is one habit that once formed, can save your life rather than end