Warning to belt up and survive

Jannette Parke | 21st July 2009

GYMPIE emergency service personnel would like to tell people, in the nicest possible way, to belt up.

FASTEN YOUR SEATBELT: Gympie mum Nicole buckles up her precious cargo, daughter Lily.

Gympie Times

GYMPIE emergency service personnel would like to tell people, in the nicest possible way, to belt up.

Local police, fireys and ambos all shake their head over fatalities that could have been avoided if only a seatbelt had been worn.

Understandably, those first on the scene of fatal road crashes never forget the grisly images that confront them.

It's especially sad when a child's death could have been avoided by one simple action Police Sergeant in Charge of Gympie District Traffic Branch Peter Webster said, adding it “defies logic” when all it would have taken to avoid a tragedy was buckling up a seat belt.

Despite it being compulsory to wear seat belts in Queensland since 1970, failure to wear the proven safety devices is one of the leading causes of road crash deaths in the state.

Seat belt wearing surveys show that the compliance rates during normal driving are over 95 per cent of drivers and front seat passengers; however back seat passengers have lower wearing rates of around 90 per cent.

Sergeant Webster says the number of people in the region who do not wear seatbelts is a great concern.

“Even in a slow speed crash, seat belts are important,” he said.

“Children are particularly at risk. People don't realise that children are head-heavy and (in the case of a crash in which they are unrestrained) they fly head first through the windscreen - they fly around like rag dolls.”

Gympie Ambulance Officer in charge, Wayne Sachs says there have been a number of vehicle crashes in the region where it is obvious that deaths have occurred because people were not wearing seatbelts.

“People not wearing seatbelts become projectiles in the event of a car crash,” he said, “It's common for them to be catapulted through the windscreen.”

Queensland Transport studies show vehicle occupants are 10 times more likely to be killed in a road crash if they are not wearing a seat belt.

It seems a “no-brainer” but analysis by Queensland University of Technology's Centre for Accident Research and Road Safety show that failure to wear a seat belt as a contributing factor in road crash deaths is at its highest in 10 years.

And it will hit your hip pocket if you are caught driving without a seatbelt with a $300 fine and the loss of three points.