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Tyler Griffin

Mr. Montero

Comp 1

October 29, 2017

The Pros and Cons of Wearing Seatbelts

Seat belts have been around for a while now and are in everyday use. There are pros and

cons to wearing a seat belt. Seat belts can save peoples lives. However, they can also have

adverse effects that could cause bodily harm and possibly end a persons life. Seat belts do more

good than harm because they save lives and prevent more devastating injuries.

Seat belts save lives and prevents injuries. Most deaths in vehicle wrecks are caused from

the injury sustained from the accident, and it is found that wearing a seat belt reduces injury .

Robertson says people are more likely to survive the crash because seat belts reduce vehicle

occupant deaths up to seventy to eighty percent Deaths occur only fifty percent less often

belted compared to non-belted vehicle occupants in crashes (Robertson 1). Now seat belt

regulations do have their part, but Elsevier writes that belt use rates for 19952000 for fatally

injured teenage drivers ranged from twenty percent (qtd Mcartt and Northrup). Four times as

many people die in car crashes due to not wearing their seat belts than wearing their seat belts.

This shows that people wearing their seat belts are safer than people not wearing their seat belts.

Additionally Robertson states that for total occupants wearing a seat belt that there forty percent

effectiveness in severe injury reduction (Robertson 2). Therefore, people are forty percent more

likely to not suffer from a severe injury if they would have been wearing their seat belts.
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On the other hand there are adverse effects of seatbelts. Isaac Aaron states that [ten]

percent of car occupants admitted to hospitals after frontal impact collisions show injuries

directly attributable to the wearing seat belts These include fracture of the clavicle, bruising

and fracture of the sternum and abdominal contusions (qtd Trinca and Dooley). On top of these

injuries, the seat belts are also known to cause intestional problems(chandler ethal). Additionally,

the adverse effects of wearing seat belts can cause trauma if not properly fitted even though they

are designed to prevent bodily harm from collision; they still can cause trauma to the spine that

is produced by severe flexion of the torso over the seat belt causing a tearing of the posterior

elements, with less involvement of the vertebral bodies(American journal of Roentgenology

833-843). Another type of injury that is common in seat belt injuries is the chance fracture which

is [a] horizontal splitting and separation of the posterior vertebral arch, involving the pedicles,

lamina, transverse processes, and spinous process, with variations (American Journal of

Roentgenology pg. 833-843). Admittedly the seat belt does have its cons, but the cons that are

discussed above are only ten percent probable in a frontal collision and if the seat is not properly

worn or fitted. Wearing a seat belt is still the safer way to go. There are more pros than cons, and

the statics show that overall people are seventy to eighty percent safer wearing Their seat belt

than not wearing one at all.

Seat belts are safer; they do have a few disadvantages, but the good outweighs the bad.

Not wearing a seat belt is more fatal than wearing one. It is important to remember that statics

show that seventy to eighty percent of occupants in car crashes die because of not wearing their

seat belts. However, there is a concern that seat belts can possibly cause harm to the body such
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as tearing posterior elements and having severe flexion to the spine, but over all that does not

change the fact that it is safer to wear one.

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WORD CITED

Dehner, John R. Seatbelt Injuries Of The Spine And Abdomen. Abstract. American

Journal of Roentgenology, vol. 111, no. 4, 1971, pp. 833843.,

doi:10.2214/ajr.111.4.833.

Robertson, L S. Estimates of motor vehicle seat belt effectiveness and use: implications

for occupant crash protection. American Journal of Public Health, vol. 66, no. 9, 1976,

pp. 859864., doi:10.2105/ajph.66.9.859

Skld, Gran, and Gerhard E. Voigt. Spinal injuries in belt-Wearing car occupants killed

by head-on collisions.Abstract. Injury, vol. 9, no. 2, 1977, pp. 151161.,

doi:10.1016/0020-1383(77)90011-0

Skld, Gran, and Gerhard E. Voigt. Spinal injuries in belt-Wearing car occupants killed

by head-on collisions. Injury, vol. 9, no. 2, 1977, pp. 151161., doi:10.1016/0020-

1383(77)90011-0
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