Saved by Seatbelts

Brianna White hasn't even reached bicycle-riding age, but she already knows to wear her seatbelt. Each time the 5-year-old gets into the car, she not only puts on her own seatbelt, she makes certain her mother Jenny is also safely buckled.
Mrs. White, a friend of base family advocacy outreach coordinator Karen GreyEyes, inadvertently taught her daughter the importance of seatbelts. A July 31 automobile accident  near Larimore left White a quadriplegic. She said a seatbelt would have probably saved her from serious injury.
White was on the way back from Devil's Lake early that morning with a friend, who fell asleep while driving. When the 1997 Grand Am began veering off the road, White grabbed the steering wheel, but the car rolled over into the ditch, and she found herself trapped.
"I know I wasn't wearing a seatbelt and I was the one who got hurt - my friend didn't even have to be admitted to the hospital," White said.
More Air Force people were killed in the first six months of 2001 - 53 - than in either of the previous two years, according to Air Force safety statistics. The majority of fatalities were caused by off-duty automobile accidents, with not wearing seatbelts one of the most common causes.
Lt. Col. Glenn Rousseau's wife discovered a unique method of teaching their children to always wear seatbelts. She once traveled with Rousseau on a military airplane and was amused to hear her husband and his co-pilot repeat the word "check" as they did their pre-flight checklists. So she taught their four children to go through their own checklist whenever the family piles into their van.
"One of those things that they respond to is when the 'pilot' of the family van challenges everyone with a 'seatbelt check,'" Rousseau said. "The rapid, disciplined succession of 'check' responses from all our little 'crewmembers' is not only cute, but very reassuring. Our family has fun with this, but more importantly, we know we are all strapped in and ready for the unexpected, which is serious business."
Seatbelts are a problem on base. During a recent seatbelt inspection, more than 15 percent of passengers in 500 base automobiles were not buckled in, said Rousseau, 319th Air Refueling Wiing chief of safety.
"For my entire military career, I've heard about the benefits of wearing seatbelts and how they save lives," Rousseau said. "How anyone in this day and age can read the reports, see the statistics and hear the personal testimonies that say wearing seatbelts is the right thing to do, then choose not to wear them is beyond my comprehension.
"Seatbelts help to prevent accidents and greatly increase your chances of surviving. Since you can't predict when you will have an accident, make seatbelts a habit and live."
White has adjusted to life as a quadriplegic, with the assistance of her "little helper." But Brianna isn't the only one who learned a valuable lesson through her mother's paralysis.
"A lot of us didn't wear them, but my family has adjusted to wearing seatbelts since then," she said. "My life could have been taken away. I want everyone to know its very important to wear their seatbelts."

Saved by Seatbelts A View from a State Trooper

If you want an honest opinion on why people should wear seatbelts - you go to those who are on the front lines of seatbelt enforcement. North Dakota Highway Patrol trooper John Clemens has seen just about everything and he'll tell you that seatbelts are a form of safety you can't live without.
"Seatbelts greatly increase your chances of surviving a crash or avoiding serious injury," Clemens said. "Anybody who has seen those crash test dummy commercials know what happens in a car crash. The car stops once it hits, but the body continues in motion until it's stopped by the steering wheel, dashboard or the windshield. If you have your seatbelt on, your body is going to be held in place, and you won't hit anything."
North Dakota's seatbelt usage rate has improved from its lowest ranking in the nation at 48 percent a few years ago to 58 percent in 2000, Clemens said. But still, 75 percent of people killed on North Dakota highways last year weren't wearing seatbelts, according to statistics provided by the North Dakota Highway Patrol. Forty-six people were killed in single-vehicle rollover crashes, and all but four were unrestrained. Thirty-eight of the victims were ejected from the vehicles.
"I've seen a few crashes where one of the occupants was wearing a seatbelt and the occupant in the other vehicle was not," Clemens said. "There have also been fatalities in the same car with the people who hadn't been wearing their seatbelts, and the people who had been wearing their seatbelts unbuckled their belts and walked away.
"Seatbelts not only keep you in your seat, but when you have to take evasive action, you're able to control the vehicle better. Seatbelts, coupled with airbags, dramatically increase your chances of surviving the crash."
Seatbelts are especially important for children. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration statistics show more than 50 percent of all infants and toddlers through age 4 killed in vehicles were not restrained. The death rate jumps to more than 55 percent for children ages 5 through 9 and to more than 67 percent for ages 10 through 15.
North Dakota seatbelt laws require all occupants below the age of 18 be restrained, either in a child safety device, or by the use of seatbelts, Clemens said.
"This is a primary offense, which means a law enforcement officer can stop a car if they observe occupants below the age of 18 are not restrained," he said. "Occupants over the age of 18 are only required to wear the belts if seated in the front seat of the car. If stopped, this is a secondary offense, meaning there has to be another reason why the officer stopped you."
A seatbelt ticket in Grand Forks will cost $71. If ticketed by a NDHP officer, it's $20. A child restraint law violation carries no fine, but one point will be assessed against your driver's record.
Drivers not only are responsible for buckling their own seatbelts, but also for all passengers, Clemens said. This is not only for the safety of the other occupants, but for the driver's as well. In a recent Japanese study, research showed up to 80 percent of front-seat occupants who die in car crashes could have been saved if their back-seat passengers were wearing seatbelts.
Their study found that the risk of death to drivers or front-seat passengers who wore their seatbelts was nearly five times higher when back-seat passengers did not buckle up. The unrestrained occupants end up being projectiles in the car, causing injury to other occupants who may be restrained or other unrestrained occupants.