Garth Rattray | Buckle up, give yourself a chance at survival

Road fatalities continue to be of major concern to every citizen. The efforts of the Jamaica Constabulary Force and the National Road Safety Council have reaped some rewards. However, the ever-increasing number of motor vehicles on our roads means that there are more possibilities for motor vehicle crashes. Additionally, motor vehicles are coming more and more powerful ‘out of the box’. This has encouraged many drivers to speed unnecessarily and take dangerous risks on public thoroughfares.

However, the greater the speed, the more difficult it is to change direction or to stop. If there is an impact, a vehicle and its contents, including every single body within the vehicle will try to continue travelling even when they cannot do so. The impact will be devastating. If there is a head-on collision, the speeds are added together.

This is why seatbelts and child restraints are essential. Without them, your body will continue moving when the vehicle has stopped or changed direction. For example, if a 79-kilogramme man is in a crash and his car is suddenly stopped while travelling at 50km/h, the seatbelt will need to hold back the force exerted by his momentum, which would be several hundred kilogrammes.

Some people don’t realise that when there is a crash, the momentum of the bodies of little babies makes it impossible to hold on to them. In a crash, at 50km/h, the momentum will cause a nine-kilogramme baby to exert a force equivalent to a weight of 123 kilogrammes.

ROUTINELY USING SEATBELTS

I was routinely using seatbelts long before they became mandatory in Jamaica. A colleague of mine was the victim of a bad driver who side swiped him and caused his vehicle to roll over several times. If he and his wife were not wearing seatbelts, they might have died. A few years after that, my sister and her husband were travelling on an interstate highway when black ice caused their vehicle to skate off the road and end up upside down in a ditch. The seatbelts were credited with saving their lives.

In the early 20th century, based on the technology of the day, engineers and scientists asserted that in the event of a crash, the maximum survivable speed for human beings was between 32 - 48km/h. With improved engineering and safety features on automobiles, they raised that figure to 64 - 80km/h in the 1950s and 1960s. With ever-improving technology, that figure rose to 113 - 129km/h in the 1980s. Keep in mind that if two vehicles crash head-on with each doing 60km/h, the crash will occur at 120km/h. However, that survival statistic is not absolute.

Survival is dependent on automobile features like, reactive seatbelts, anti-lock brakes, automatic emergency braking, airbags, electronic-stability control, advanced materials, improved crumple zones, the age and physical condition of the occupant, the direction of impact, how fast the vehicle can decelerate, and the body position. Obviously, safety on the road still comes down to being careful and avoiding a crash.

The first production car with standard seatbelts was the 1959 Volvo PV544. Volvo freely shared their design, and optional seatbelts were common in the 1960s. It wasn’t until 1966 that the United States first installed seatbelts in their Chrysler 1966 models. In 1968, it was mandatory in all new cars.

REDUCE RISK

Seatbelts reduce the risk of fatal injury by 45 per cent for front-seat passengers and 73 per cent for rear-seat passengers. They keep occupants from being ejected during a crash. They spread the force of impact across the body. They protect from head and chest injuries and, therefore, help prevent fatalities. Observational studies were carried out in the United States on injuries sustained in 80km/h crashes, with and without the use of seatbelts. For adults with seatbelts, the estimated mortality was one to two deaths per 100 crashes, and without seatbelts, that figure rose to 10 – 20 deaths.

For infants (children up to 12 months old), the estimated mortality rate was 0.1 - 0.5 deaths per 100 crashes with child restraints and 40-60 deaths per 100 crashes without restraints. For properly secured children (one – 12 years old) the estimated mortality rate was 0.5 - two deaths per 100 crashes and 20 - 40 deaths per 100 crashes without restraints.

Special mention belongs to our police personnel. As an unwritten rule, they do not wear seatbelts. The excuses include the [possible] need to exit the vehicle quickly in an emergency and the need to pull their firearm in a hurry. I can understand the relevance of not wearing a seatbelt if they are very slowly cruising through a volatile community, but it has proven dangerous for them to remain unsecured while driving around under normal circumstances.

Some regular citizens have adopted the habit and claim to be ‘strapped’ (in possession of a firearm) and need to be able to pull it rapidly, if necessary. They argue vehemently with the police, who have set the bad example. And finally, many people travel in the bed of pickups without any form of restraint. The police have been turning a blind eye to it although there is a 30 – 50 per cent fatality risk in crashes, and 75 per cent of those fatalities occur at speeds below 64km/h. There is absolutely no doubt that seatbelts reduce the likelihood of serious injuries and save lives. Everyone should take buckling up very seriously.

Garth A. Rattray is a medical doctor with a family practice. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and garthrattray@gmail.com.