How can seat belts save money

Educate the public to make seat belt use a social norm. Health professionals can: Remind patients about the importance of seat belt use. Encourage patients to make wearing a seat belt a habit. Wear seat belts themselves and encourage their colleagues to do the same. Parents and caregivers can: Use a seat belt on every trip, no matter how short. This sets a good example. Make sure children are properly buckled up in a car seat, booster seat, or seat belt, whichever is appropriate for their age, height, and weight.

Have all children age 12 and under sit properly buckled in the back seat. Remember to never place a rear-facing child safety seat in front of an air bag. Properly buckle children in the middle back seat when possible because it is the safest spot in the vehicle. Everyone can: Use a seat belt on every trip, no matter how short. Require everyone in the car to buckle up, including those in the back seat.

Secondary Enforcement Laws external icon. References Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Accessed 2 Sep National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Department of Transportation, Washington, DC; Publication no. Lives saved in by restraint use and minimum-drinking-age laws. Accessed 3 Sep Self-reported seat belt use, United States, Does prevalence vary by state and type of seat belt law?

Journal of Safety Research , ; Vital Signs: nonfatal motor vehicle-occupant injuries and seat belt use among adults—United States. MMWR ;59 51 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Cost of Injury Reports. A multivariable regression model was performed for the association between seatbelt use and hospital costs. After adjusting for relevant factors, there were still significantly decreased hospital costs for motor vehicle occupants using a lap-shoulder seatbelt Conclusion: Seatbelt use is significantly associated with reduced hospital costs among injured MVC occupants.

The carnage on our American roadways has far eclipsed the death toll of all our wars combined. Nearly every American family has been touched in some way.

In fact, traffic accidents are the number one cause of death for Americans age 5 to 34—and public health officials insist that up to half of these lives could be saved if everyone wore seat belts. In fact, Alabama has one of the lowest rates of seat-belt usage in the nation. Not surprisingly, our state ranks 12th in the nation for deaths on its roadways. From through , it is estimated that safety belts saved 90, lives, including 10, lives saved in Kenneth Mann, Ph.

When crashes occur, unrestrained drivers are thrown against their steering wheels or ejected from their cars, while unbelted passengers hit the dashboard or go through the windshield. People who are ejected in crashes are 25 times more likely to be killed than those who remain within the vehicle. Of the people who survive car crashes, unbelted victims stay three-to-five times longer in a hospital and incur two-to-seven times the medical costs of those wearing safety belts, according to the NHTSA.