Seat Belts Are Saving Lives
From CFAY Traffic Safety Office

Do you know the seat belt usage rate here on Yokosuka base? Currently the usage rate is 92 percent which is under what other bases in the region are reporting.

How does this make you feel when you hear the rate; do you think people not wearing their belt are concerned for your safety if they are not concerned for their own?

Working in today’s safety minded organizations, nobody would agree this percentage is good enough. We must raise the usage rate! By reeducating on how to use your seatbelt, maybe we can get our usage rate back up.

Today’s vehicles are equipped with a variety of safety devices such as horns, stop lights, head lights, anti-lock brake system (ABS), airbags, accelerators (yes, the accelerator) and even more. This time we would like to focus on the most effective and easiest to use device - seat belts.

Your seat belt functions perfectly but only when it is properly used.

The lap belt portion of the seat belt should be positioned across the hips to maximize protection against injuries. If your vehicle is equipped with one, adjust the height of the shoulder belt anchor properly. Keep the shoulder strap snug across your chest and cross your collarbone. Never tuck it behind your shoulder; you might as well not wear it at all if you’re going to do that. Also, you can severely injure your neck, ribs, spleen and liver if you’re in an accident.

Be sure to position your head restraint at the proper height which is centered on the back of your head.

A lways make sure children are properly restrained in the safest position. It should be noted that children under the age of 12 could be killed or seriously injured by a front impact airbag. That’s why it is so important that children 12 and under sit in the back seat.

For infants and people under four feet, nine inches, they should be in a child seat or booster seat for their appropriate size and weight.

In any collision, there are actually three separate collisions:

• The vehicle collides with an object.

• The body collides with the vehicle’s interior surfaces.

• The body’s internal organs collide with bones and other tissue.

Even airbags, the most modern device, do not replace safety belts. Occupants must wear their belts regardless of whether a vehicle is equipped with airbags. Having an airbag is not an excuse for not wearing a seatbelt. It is only a supplemental feature of safety that works well in combination with seat belts.

Some newer model vehicles come with seat belt pretensioning devices and airbag systems may not activate unless the seat belt is properly buckled.

People are 25 times more likely to be injured or killed when thrown from a vehicle during a collision. Some believe seat belts won’t allow them to escape from a vehicle that is under water or on fire… not true! People who don’t escape are normally unconscious which prevents them for any type of actions for self preservation.

Rely on the most common and important safety device - SEAT BELTS.