By: Benedict Smythe
Submitted: 2008-08-08 22:07:26 | Word Count: 501
Staying secure on the road is one act of responsibilty for a driver and the passenger as well. To prevent further casualties on unavoidable circumstances like road accidents, government units have implemented strict compliance to the seatbealt law. Upon the application of this order, the rate of serious car accidents causing death lowered. This have proven the effictiveness of the seatbelt in maintaining safety on the road. As a matter of fact, wearing seatbelt increases the possibility of surviving in a head on vehicle collision.
There are a number of things to consider in using the belts properly. Since this is used to protect the passengers, one to one policy is applied. This means that for every passenger, one seatbelt must be alloted and double use is very much discouraged. Next, a standard seatbelt is composed of shoulder and lap belts, these must be strongly fastened to the lock at the side of the seat.
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These safety gears will prevent deadly impact during collision to the person properly wearing it. Mostly, it will stop forces on the chest and pelvis areas. If ever the belt is worn loosely or improperly, it will cause more injury or the worst, ejection from the vehicle due to the strength of the impact. This is why, it must be locked down properly by all persons riding a vehicle, most importantly for pregnant women and children. As mentioned earlier, authorities or government units have ordered for seatbelt law observation and implementation. Anyone who will be caught not wearing a seatbelt on his travel will be penalized with fines.
On wearing of seatbelts for children, a driver is given the responsibility of ensuring that those under 16 years old are secured inside the vehicle. Infants and toddlers, including those pre school children, must also be provided with their own car seats or booster seats. Pre teens and teen agers is most safe when seated at the back and far from the central point of impact. Those age 16 and above are responsible enough to fasten their own belts, so most likely they don’t need further supervision. These steps will absolutely take the risk of high impact accident away from your children.
Everybody is required to use a setbelt during their trips, but then, there are several exemptions to this ordinance. Those that are exempted on this are those driving motor vehicles reversely and those whose job entails frequent entering and going off the vehicle. Persons in police custody and authorities transporting another person in his detention are exempted as well. Other exemptions apply to attendants in an ambulance, firefighters on duty and taxi drivers having passengers in their care. But then when they are alone, taxi drivers must wear their seatbelts.
Some special transport vehicles that are on the market now have no built in seatbelts. For these, exclusion is granted on passenger buses, other school buses and commercial vehicles. Lastly, the exclusion also applies to historic vehicles, wherein the manufacturing year was without the seatbelt law yet.
