Publications

Q. Dear Carl, why should you wear a seatbelt when riding in a car? Do seatbelts cause more harm than they prevent? Finally, is it true that teenagers don't need to wear seatbelts because it's just a silly adult rule for old people as my daughter would say?

A. In my twenty-five years of handling thousands of legal cases for people involved in car accidents, the verdict on the use of seatbelts has been reached in my opinion. There is absolutely no doubt from my countless interviews with people injured in thousands of auto accidents that seatbelts dramatically reduce the severity of car accident injuries. My reason for discussing the wisdom of using seatbelts in this article is due to the fact that so many people do not wear seat belts. Their reasons vary from their belief that seatbelts cause more harm than seatbelts prevent, to their belief that they simply are such good drivers that they won't be involved in a car accident.

Without a lap/shoulder seatbelt in any significant front end collision, the front seat driver and passenger will hurl forward at a high rate of speed into the steering wheel, dashboard and/or the windshield. If you think you are quick enough to try to brace yourself moments before impact, think again because you will most likely cut or fracture your arms while still impacting the dashboard and windshield. Most people are simply not strong enough nor quick enough to stop their bodies from crashing into the car's interior. In most front end collisions, the unseat belted front seated person's head will smash into the windshield. These head injuries typically include facial scarring, broken noses, broken teeth, fractured jaws and/or concussions. In my experience handling all of these accident cases, the people who fail to wear seat belts have generally sustained the most serious injuries. Motorcyclists are the only other group sustaining more serious injuries than those failing to wear their seat belts. Motorcyclists are unfortunately known as organ donors in hospital emergency rooms.

If there are two or more unseat belted people in a car involved in a crash, there is the significant potential for these passengers to strike each other, particularly in the case of side impact auto accidents or where a car is spun around in an impact. In the rear end collisions, a lap shoulder belt restrains the whip lashed front seat passengers from striking either the steering wheel or the dash board. When vehicles roll over in accidents, the unseat belted passengers frequently are ejected from the vehicle. The ejected passengers' odds of survival are similar to those of motorcyclists. There are higher incidents of rollovers accidents in high speed accidents particularly with accidents involving sports utility vehicles.

Lap shoulder belts do not prevent all personal injuries. Seat belts frequently leave bruises across the passengers' chests and abdomens in the more serious accidents. However, the National Safety Council found that seat belts reduce the risk of death by 45% and reduce the risk of serious injury by 50%. Children between the ages of 4 and 8 do not fit well in adult seat belts unless they use booster seats. Children older than 8 and at least 4 feet 9 inches tall are generally considered large enough to use adult seat belts. Without the booster seats, adult seat belts are not properly positioned to hold the young child to prevent injury. The young child without a booster seat has the potential for serious head and abdominal injuries from the use of adult seat belts.

Unfortunately, motor vehicle crashes continue to be the leading cause of death and disability in children between the ages 1 to 18 years of age. More than 60% of the 16 to 20 year olds, who died in auto accidents in 1997, were not wearing seat belts according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The law of Ohio and my best advice is to buckle up so as to minimize injuries to you and your family in the event you are involved in an auto accident. Some insurance companies actually increase the amount of your medical payment coverage if you were wearing your seat belt during an accident. You will further avoid ticket from the police.