Relaxed or not, seat belts still matter

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MOTORING NEWS & VIDEO - As many motorists set off for various holiday destinations in December, road safety experts hope that all passengers in vehicles will buckle up, thanks to several awareness campaigns.

But what about once motorists safely reach their destinations - do they continue the practice?

If you drive a kilometre or two to the beach, do you always wear your seatbelt?

The managing director of MasterDrive, Eugene Herbert, asks if people sometimes forget or ignore their seat belts when people are in relaxation mode with long trips behind them and city traffic forgotten.

"The key to safe driving is to never let your guard down. Whether the drive is 2km down the road or 200km to a destination, the seat belt is equally important.

"To understand why a seat belt is important, we need to understand the role it plays in a crash. When a collision happens, three impacts take place. The first impact is with the object you drive into. The second impact is the body colliding with other people or objects in the car. The last impact is your internal organs colliding inside the body.

"The job of the seat belt is to prevent you from being flung from the car, being flung into others in the car and to spread the force of stopping suddenly more widely across the sturdier parts of the body."

Another important part of seat belt safety is ensuring children are safely buckled up.

"Never allow children to skip wearing their seatbelts so that they can lie flat across the seat. Keep an eye on them to ensure that they do not put the top strap behind their bodies to be more comfortable.

"If a child is too old for a car or booster seat there are items available to make a seat belt more comfortable. There is not anything you can do to protect them should you be in a crash and they are not safely strapped in.