I wanted to talk today a little bit about the use of seatbelts and the importance for safety reasons, obviously. In fact, in January, not of this year but it was actually last year, there was an Acworth resident who, unfortunately, was not wearing a seatbelt and he veered into traffic, oncoming traffic in the other lane and after the investigation was done, the investigators felt that to a very high percentage that his death could have been avoided had he just been using the seatbelt.
Motor vehicle accidents are the number one, believe it, I said number one cause of deaths for Americans aged one-year-old to 54 years old. Every single year, millions of Americans are either hurt- will mainly hurt. Millions of Americans are hurt on the highways every year and approximately 30,000 Americans are killed on the highways every year. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention actually has a statistic out there which says that if a seatbelt is used then that will reduce the possibility of dying in a motor vehicle accident by 50%.
That really is, in a nutshell, that summarizes really the statistical importance of using your seatbelts when driving. Younger drivers don’t really use their seatbelts that much. In fact, for the age group of 18 to 34, those drivers only use their seatbelts about 37% of the time. Interestingly, adults who live in rural areas are less likely, about 10% less likely to use their seatbelts than individuals residing and traveling on highways in other areas of the state.
If you have questions about the use of seatbelts or the need to use seatbelts as it relates to motor vehicle accidents, car accidents, trucking accidents, any type of accidents, please call my office at 770-792-1000.