Seat belts reduce injuries and fatalities by 50%

MVA

The MVA Fund recently launched the ‘Click for Life’ campaign which aims to inculcate a culture of safe travel with minimal injuries and fewer fatal crashes through the correct use of seat belts.

Through this campaign, the Fund intends to positively reinforce the correct use of seat belts, educate road users on how to correctly install child car seats or child restraints, and emphasise the benefits of using seat belts.

The campaign is backed by a World Health Organisation (WHO) report which states that the correct use of safety belts or child restraints reduces crash-related injuries and fatalities by 50%.

Additionally, the study conducted on ‘Safety-belt Compliance in Namibia’ in 2007 by the Global Road Safety Partnership (GRSP) Namibia confirmed that on average only 40.7% of drivers wear safety belts in Namibia.

These results also drew attention to the high number of more than 6 000 people who sustain varying degrees of injury on average every year. This number can be linked to the improper or non-use of seat belts and child restraints, as drivers and passengers alike face an increased risk of injury.

Although seat belts and child restraints do not prevent crashes from happening, they play a major role in reducing the severity of injury to vehicle occupants involved in a collision. An person’s chance of survival increases greatly when appropriately restrained.

Consequently, adherence to the correct use of seat belts and child restraints may mean the difference between life and death and severity of injury.

Therefore, all road users are advised to buckle up, as it reduces the chances of serious injuries such as traumatic brain injury (TBI), poly-trauma (PT) and spinal cord injury (SCI) and has a major impact on the reduction of medical costs due to severity of injury.

All road users are therefore urged to use seat belts at all times to minimise injuries in the event of a crash.

The MVA Fund once again reminds the public to report crashes to the MVA Fund accident response number 081 9682, as doing so can save a life, and to follow the Fund’s Facebook and Twitter feeds for road-safety tips.