In our daily lives, safety devices are critical. Every day, numerous accidents occur, and the proper use of safety straps has saved many lives. It is critical to understand the significance of wearing one. But there’s also the significance of wearing seat belts correctly. In this article, we will discuss the importance of seat belts for rear passengers and the reasons why they should wear them.
Being strapped in during an accident helps keep you safe inside your car: complete removal from the car is almost always dangerous. It is very important to fasten the back seat belt in the event of a frontal accident. It will prevent life-threatening injuries.
But the people sitting in the rear seat do not understand the value of the seat belts. They think that seat belts are only for the people in the front seat, but that is not true. Whenever an accident occurs, the impact is so powerful that you would be thrown out of the car through the front windshield if you did not wear seat belts.
The importance of wearing a seat belt
Seat belts are important safety features, such as airbags, that help protect the driver or passenger in the event of an accident. People who do not wear seat belts while driving are putting themselves at greater risk. In addition to serious injuries, not wearing a seat belt can also damage your car insurance application in the event of an accident.
Some of the benefits of wearing a seat belt are:
- It grabs the strongest body parts of the shoulders and hips
- Extend the force of a collision on a wide area of the body
- It helps the body slow down in a sudden change
- It protects the two most vulnerable parts of your body, namely, your brain and spinal cord
Importance of seat belts for rear passengers
1. Reduces risk
People in India have grown accustomed to wearing seat belts when riding in the front seat of a car, whether out of fear of challan or for safety concerns. Rear passengers, on the other hand, are in a different situation.
Even if they are not belted up, those in the back seat generally assume they are sufficiently protected in the event of an accident. According to the World Health Organization research, wearing a rear seat belt reduces the risk of being killed or injured by 25% and 75%, respectively.
In the event of a crash, an unbuckled rear passenger is more likely to collide with the front seat’s backrest. Whiplash is a type of injury that affects the vertebrae and, in many cases, cuts off oxygen to the brain.
In many circumstances, unbelted rear passengers can crash with the front seat, driving the front passenger into the dashboard or triggering the airbag, posing a catastrophic risk. The rear passengers may fly out of the windscreen or collide with the dashboard or steering wheel in some situations.
2. Carelessness
“I’m just sitting in the back. There’s no need for me to buckle up.” Reconsider your position! Frequent travel can be extremely deceiving, even if it appears to be low-key.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, did you know that most road-related deaths occur within 25 miles of your home and at speeds less than 40 mph? Don’t take chances. Your lives and, therefore, the lives of other passengers are at stake.
Rear passengers must understand that someday, they or their families have to face the consequences if they remain careless.
3. Airbags won’t help you
Airbags are designed to protect the folded passenger, not the sole. Seat belts protect you in the right place to benefit from airbag deployment. If you do not wear your seat belt only because you are a rear passenger, then you are in danger of slipping under the airbag, colliding with a dashboard or windshield, or being pulled out of the front seat.
Airbags are an additional form of protection, and most are designed to be used in moderate to medium-sized earlier risks, which do not cover all situations.
4. Reduces death rate
With unbelted rear-seat passengers, the risk of mortality for belted front-seat travellers increased approximately five-fold. Nearly 80% of deaths of belted front-seat occupants may have been averted if rear seat belts had been utilized. For the safety of all car occupants, the use of rear seat belts should be advocated. So if you care for the people seated at the front, you must abide by the rules and wear seat belts.
Reasons why rear passengers should wear seat belts
- Seat belts are one of the basics of car safety. It is a legal requirement to wear them in many countries.
- If you wear a three-point type (you will be familiar with this – they are common in modern cars and wear a belt around the chest as well as the waist), then the chances of you dying are 50% in the event of a crash. * Rear passengers should also not ignore the rules. If a seat belt is installed, they MUST wear it.
- If this does not entice anyone to wear their seat belts, perhaps some statistics from the Department of Transportation will do. Their official figures show that 34% of people died in road accidents as a result of not wearing seat belts. It’s a sobering thought, especially when you consider how fast and easy it is to cut a seat belt in place, and yet rear passengers don’t wear it.
1. If an airbag is going to work to save you, why do you still have to fasten your seat belt?
- It holds your body inside the car. An airbag won’t do you any good if your body flies past you. In the event of a collision, the vehicle stops very quickly. If you do not wear a seat belt, you could get serious injuries. Seat belts will allow you to slow down, keeping you restrained. So rear passengers should wear to restrain them from flying out directly through the windshield.
- Keeping your body in the car and the right place when you touch the airbag. Airbags are never designed to replace seat belts, which are additional restrictions. They could only save you from hitting, but it might not be helpful if you are not restrained. One of the major issues at the rear seat is that we try to accommodate more than allowed people at the back.
- The design of the Airbag is made by thinking that you are wearing a seat belt, so it will work to protect you while you are wearing it. This gives you one more reason to wear seat belts even at the back.
- Every car manufacturer strongly recommends wearing seat belts at all times, as this is a great way to prevent personal injury. And this is why even rear passengers should be wearing it too.
- Seat belts are primarily used to prevent injury in the event of accidental collisions or accidents. When a car abruptly stops or crashes, the person sitting in a seat may be propelled forward due to inertia of motion, potentially resulting in injury. So even if you are a rear passenger, the law of physics will still apply to you.
2. Wearing a seat belt: the importance and renewal of penalties for not wearing one
India is second after China in terms of population. Therefore, there is a lot of traffic congestion on our country’s roads. Some of the most congested roads in India result in many accidents. As per the Global Status Report on road safety by WHO in 2018, it was estimated that there were 2,99,000 people killed in road accidents in India almost every year.
Driving in India is considered dangerous by many professionals. As a result of the increase in the number of people killed in road accidents, the Indian government introduced the revised and amended Car Act (Amendment) Act of 2019. The Act was passed to promote the culture of safe driving in India. As part of the amendment, a heavy fine has been introduced so that no one breaks traffic rules.
3. Penalty for driving without a seat belt
By law, the driver and passenger in the front seats must wear seat belts in India. However, there is no such law for passengers in the back seats. Driving without a seat belt now is like a traffic violation that offenders can be fined for. But, just because it isn’t illegal for the rear passengers to wear a seat belt does not mean that this practise should be continued.
It is your decision whether to wear seat belts or not while sitting at the rear, but everyone knows that prevention is better than cure. So, you should wear seat belts. Instead of being careless, we must take a little extra effort as well as avoid unwanted situations. Every decision we make affects our lives in a major way, and if being extra careful extends that life, then why not wear seat belts? There will always be things that will feel unnecessary, but those will be worth it when the time comes.