Seatbelts Safety Campaign: New figures

The number of people killed after not wearing their seatbelts has more than halved according to new figures released by Kent County Council.

Just four out of the 24 vehicle occupant fatalities on the county’s roads in 2016 involved drivers or passengers not wearing a seatbelt.

This represents a significant improvement on the same figures for 2015, which showed 11 out of the 31 of those killed were not wearing a seatbelt.

While the drop was welcomed by Kent County Council’s Road Safety Team, they repeated their warnings to road users on the importance of belting up.

To mark this year’s annual seatbelt safety campaign, KCC called in a team of children to help get the serious message across in two light-hearted videos posted online.

Reminiscent of TV’s “Kids Say the Funniest Things,” the two 30-second clips show children aged between three and eight years old responding to questions about road safety and the implications of not wearing a seatbelt in the car.

Fittingly, the end of one of the clips sees the message of road safety inadvertently hammered home.

Asked “what would happen if you didn’t wear your seatbelt?” a child responds “nee naw, nee naw”- an innocent yet thought-provoking response.

What is particularly striking about the videos, is the children’s inability to envisage travelling in a vehicle without wearing their seatbelt. To them the dangers are all too obvious, ignoring a habitual behaviour taught by their parents is incomprehensible.

KCC’s Road Safety Team Leader Vicky Watkins said: “Seatbelts have been compulsory for 34 years and we are really starting to see that wearing one has become an unquestioned behaviour.

“The fall in fatalities during 2016 is encouraging, but unfortunately, there are still instances where seatbelts are not worn. Fastening your seatbelt at the start of every journey is such a simple task, but the dangers of not doing so are as high as ever.

“These children have all been taught by a responsible adult to wear their seatbelt and what is very clear is that they can’t fathom why people wouldn’t wear a seatbelt. While it is impossible to say whether the outcome of the crashes would have been different if they had been wearing seatbelts, the figures are a sharp reminder of how important it is to belt-up in the car.”

Though the awareness of the legal obligation to wear a seatbelt seems high, the latest available crash data demonstrates some people still forget or choose not to wear their seatbelts.

The latest figures also included the number of drivers caught for not wearing their seatbelts after being stopped on Kent’s roads.

In 2016 509 motorists were stopped for not belting up, compared to 546 in 2015.

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