Safety
AROUND YOUR HOME

Make summer safer with seat belts

Warm weather is finally here and with it comes the outdoor activities we've been planning for all winter. If the price of gas goes down (it was $1.60 per gallon of regular as of this writing) many of us will be venturing on an annual family vacation. That means packing the family car with the essentials, and sometimes nonessentials, and heading out on the highway. At work we have safety supervisors to remind us of the "safe work practices" whether we want them to or not. When we are with our family however, we, as parents, take the role of the safety supervisors with our children. Motor vehicle accidents are the number one killer of children.

Roger Stegeman

Be aware of the laws of the states you are traveling through when on vacation. All states and the District of Columbia have had child restraint use laws in effect since 1985. The National Safety Council states that "child safety seats reduce fatal injury by 69 percent for infants less than one year old, and by 47 percent for children one through four years old." In 1996 there were 653 occupant fatalities among children less than five years old. Of these, an estimated 52 percent were unrestrained. In 1997, there were 593 fatalities for the same age group. Fifty-four percent were unrestrained. The number of fatalities is decreasing, perhaps due to the laws, but hopefully more because of awareness and acceptance of safe practices. An estimated 3,894 lives have been saved by child restraints from 1975 through 1997, with 312 saved in 1997 alone. It's estimated that an additional 183 lives could have been saved if all children less than five years of age were restrained in appropriate safety seats. One death is too many.

Make sure that you and the rest of the family buckle up before setting out. Forty-nine states and the District of Columbia have mandatory seat belt laws in effect, the only exception being New Hampshire. In 36 of the states with belt use laws in effect, the law specified secondary enforcement. That is, the police officer can only write a citation if they would stop a motorist for some other traffic violation. Thirteen states and the District of Columbia have primary enforcement and law enforcement officers can stop a vehicle when they see a violation of the seat belt law.

When used, lap/shoulder safety belts reduce the risk of fatal injury to front seat passengers by 45 percent and reduce the risk of moderate-to-critical injury by 50 percent. For light truck occupants, safety belts reduce the risk of fatal injury by 60 percent.

Safety belts saved an estimated 10,750 lives in 1997 for passengers over the age of four years old. An additional 9,601 lives could have been saved if all passengers had worn their seat belts. Since 1975, it is estimated that over 100,000 lives have been saved because of seat belts.

Seat belts also keep the passengers in the car during a collision. In 1997, for accidents in which a fatality occurred, only 1 percent of occupants wearing their seat belts were ejected as opposed to 20 percent of unrestrained occupants.

In states taking surveys of seat belt compliance, 69 percent of drivers and passengers wore their seat belts. It's interesting that 62 percent wore their seat belts in those states with secondary enforcement and 79 percent in the states with primary enforcement.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration about 39 percent of all traffic fatalities in 1997 involved an intoxicated or alcohol impaired driver. Of the 16,189 alcohol related fatalities in 1997, an estimated 12,704 occurred in which the driver was intoxicated (having a blood alcohol concentration of .10 or greater).

Traffic fatalities fell 6 percent from 1996 to 1997. They also declined 32 percent from 1987 to 1997. In 1987, 51 percent of all traffic deaths were alcohol related.

The numbers are improving over the years. We are headed in right direction. One fatality is too many. Each fatality represents someone's father, mother, husband, wife or child. We need to keep our loved ones safe. We truly are their guardians.

Roger Stegeman is manager of safety for the Association of Illinois Electric Cooperatives. You can write to him in care of Illinois Country Living, PO. Box 3787, Springfield, IL 62708. Telephone: (217) 529-5561.

14 ILLINOIS COUNTRY LIVING JUNE 2000