THE PRESS WEDNESDAY, MAY 9, 1984. Are you sitting safely?

Press, 9 May 1984, Page 16

THE PRESS WEDNESDAY, MAY 9, 1984. Are you sitting safely?

The three-week campaign begun by the Ministry of Transport on Monday to encourage greater use of seat belts and child restraints in cars should not be necessary. Unfortunately, the number of careless or foolish drivers and passengers — and forgetful or blinkered parents — is still too high. Renewed efforts to persuade people to protect themselves and their youngsters are fully justified. The carnage on the roads so far this year has been horrifying. A preliminary analysis of road accidents in the first three months of this year has shown that as many as 26 lives might have been saved had seat belts been worn. No argument could be more eloquent or more persuasive than this; yet some remain deaf to it. Attempts to survey the extent to which seat belts are used tend to confirm that too many people travelling in cars are not making use of the restraints. One such survey was made in Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch last December. Some satisfaction could be taken from the finding that most drivers and frontseat passengers wore seat belts. Less satisfactory was the finding that, although 42 per cent of the rear-seat passengers surveyed had seat belts available, only 18 per cent of them were wearing the restraints. Even allowing for the greater sense of security that a passenger might feel in a back seat, the negligence or wilfulness of those who spurn the added, real security of a belt is unacceptable. It is like a non-swimmer discarding a life-jacket because he can still see land.

Legislation and law enforcement can go only so far to ensuring that people buckle up. A few will remain perverse; others will fall victim to occasional lapses even though the belt-wearing habit is ingrained. A study of fatal accidents by the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research has shown a direct link between the failure to wear seat belts and driving while impaired by alcohol. It is a sad truth that those who are more at risk as a result of their foolhardiness in drinking and driving are also less likely to take the simple protective measure of buckling up. For whatever reason adults travelling in cars fail to wear seat belts, they are indeed contributors to their own misfortune. The rest of society may have to bear part of the cost, at least, that results from injury. The injured person who fails to wear a seat belt suffers not only the pain of injury, but also from the knowledge that it might have been avoided. In spite of attempts to warn parents of the dangers, children are still being carried on adult laps. Fewer than three-quarters of the children in the five-to-seven years age group observed in the survey were using the restraints available. These potential road victims are not responsible for their own vulnerability; adult oversight has failed to reduce their susceptibility to injury or death and has failed to limit the severity of possible injury. Buckling oneself in, or buckling up a child, is simple, quick, and costs nothing. Failure to do it is costing too high a price in human lives.