South Carolina Auto Accident Lawyer

A 27-year-old Lexington man died in a car wreck when his vehicle went off of the road hitting a tree, he did not have his seat belt on.

The passengers, both wearing seat belts, had injuries but survived the crash.

Buckle Up South Carolina‘s facts show us that: 

•  2010, 9,813 children under age six were occupants of a vehicle involved in a traffic collision; 8 of those children were killed. Only 5 of the 8 children were in a child safety seat.
• Safety belts are the most effective safety devices in vehicles today, estimated to save 9,500 lives each year.
• If 90 percent of motorists on our nation’s roads buckled up (the U.S. DOT’s goal for 2005), we would prevent an estimated 5,536 additional fatalities and 132,700 additional injuries annually.
• Every hour, at least one person dies in this country because he or she didn’t buckle up. Failure to use a seat belt contributes to more fatalities than any other single traffic safety-related behavior.
• Research has found that proper use of lap/shoulder belts reduces the risk of fatal injury to front seat passenger car occupants by 45 percent and the risk of moderate-to-critical injury by 50 percent (for occupants of light trucks, 60 percent and 65 percent respectively).
• Child safety seats, used correctly in passenger cars, reduce the risk of death by 71 percent for infants and by 54 percent for toddlers. In light trucks, the corresponding reductions are 58 percent and 59 percent, respectively. Only about 15 percent of people in South Carolina use child restraints properly, however.
• Observations conducted in 1996 showed that if a driver is wearing a seat belt, 86 percent of the time toddlers will also be restrained. If the driver is not wearing a seat belt, however, only 24 percent of the time will toddlers be restrained.
• To get the most benefit out of your safety belt, you should wear it low over the pelvis with the bottom edge touching the tops of the thighs. The shoulder belt should be worn over the shoulder and across the chest, not under the arm and over the abdomen. Make certain that the shoulder belt is not worn so loosely that it does not slide off your shoulder. Pregnant women should wear the lap belt below the abdomen and the shoulder belt above the belly.
• Even if your car has airbags, always wear your safety belt. Airbags are supplemental restraint systems that work with safety belts, not in place of them. They help protect adults in a frontal crash, but they don’t provide protection in side or rear impact crashes or in rollovers.
• Fear of entrapment during vehicle fire or submersion is not a valid reason for not wearing seat belts. Only one-half of one percent of all crashes ends in fire or submersion. Most crash fatalities result from the force of impact or from being thrown from the vehicle, not from being trapped. Ejected occupants are four times as likely to be killed as those who remain inside the vehicle.
• Safety belts should be worn at all times, even on short trips close to home. Three out of four fatal crashes occur within 25 miles of the crash victims’ home. Most crashes causing death or injury occur at speeds below 40 miles per hour.

Contact the Automobile Accident Law Firm of Bice Law