Michael and his girlfriend, Monica, were leaving their senior high school prom headed to dinner. Both Michael and Monica left the prom full of excitement. The conversation about all the fun they had took Michael’s attention away from focusing on driving. Michael ran off the highway and hit a tree. Michael and Monica were thrown from the car because they were not wearing their seatbelts and were badly injured.
Drivers and passengers should use their seatbelt because motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for people not wearing their safety belt. Using seatbelts decreases the chances of injury and death from a motor vehicle crash. A seatbelt restrains both the driver and passengers from a sudden impact during a collision and prevents car occupants from being ejected from their car on impact. At amusement parks, rides will not start until everyone is seated and belted in. Why, …show more content…
Using seatbelts reduces risk of death and injury if involved in a car accident. In the U.S., all states have laws that mandate wearing seatbelts. Safety belt laws have been enacted by states since 1984 and vary in the nature of their provisions (Garcia-Espana, Winston, & Durbin, 2012, p. 128). Seatbelt laws have been created to encourage people to fasten their seatbelts.
The seatbelt law can be put into two categories. The primary law grants law enforcement permission to write tickets for anyone in a car not wearing a seatbelt regardless of any other traffic violation. There are 32 states that have adopted this primary seat belt law, including the District of Columbia. The Secondary law for wearing seatbelts states that law enforcement is only able to write citations for not wearing a seatbelt when the driver is not wearing a seatbelt involved in another traffic violation. Wearing a seatbelt also saves you money from paying fines and higher car insurance