Every 33 seconds, a child is involved in a car accident (Herrick). Do you have any younger siblings, cousins, nieces or nephews? Are any of these kids small or young enough to need some type of car seat or booster seat? I did research on the topic of child car seats and I believe that it is a very important topic. Today, I am going to try and persuade you that children should always be put in the proper safety restraint in a car. First, by looking at the current situation of child safety restraints and why it may or may not be a problem. Second, by looking at ways to solve the problem. And finally, by showing you how everyone will benefit from the changes or what you specifically can do to help change the situation. I will start by telling …show more content…
Some parents do not consider the cost of a car seat in their baby’s budget (“Child Passenger Safety”). Car seats are misused frequently. There was a survey done in 2015 that showed about 61% of forward facing seats were not installed correctly. 20% of boosters were misused due to seat belt placement. It should be across the hips and thighs, not the stomach or ribs. For short trips, 21% of parents see no need to buckle their kids. 12% say if you’re in a rush, it’s acceptable. But what a lot of parents do not know is that most accidents happen at speeds less than 40 mph and within 25 miles of home (Herrick). There are some parents who drive convertible cars that do not have enough seats or room for a child seat. A woman from California was charged with murder after her baby died in an accident. She did not put her 5 month old daughter in a car seat, and instead the baby rode on the mothers lap in the passenger seat. The father was driving when the car went through a barrier and fell 200 feet. The baby was thrown from the vehicle. The mother was charged with murder and willful child endangerment because she made the decision to ride in a 2 seat porche without any safety precautions. If the family was in a car with more than 2 seats so that the baby was in a proper car seat, she would not have been thrown out of the car and could have survived (Kelman). Because of the fact that parents do not see the importance of child restraint, children are at a higher risk of dying or being fatally injured. Not using child seats can result in major or minor injuries, life-changing accidents, or even death if a car is involved in some type of collision. So many deaths could be avoided if people took action to protect their children. And less parents, children and families would be affected by death
In North Carolina, the “Click It or Ticket” program was put into place in 1993 by former Governor Jim Hunt to increase safety belt and child safety use rates through stepped up enforcement of the state’s safety belt law. According to North Carolina’s safety belt law all drivers and front seat passengers over the age of 16 are required to wear safety belts. Children less than age 16 are covered under the North Carolina Child Restraint Law. This law requires that children must be buckled up no matter where they are seated in the vehicle. Violators of the safety belt law are issued tickets and are subject to a fine of $25 plus $50 court costs. These violations have been defined as “infractions” and are not entered on driving records. In addition to this, effective January 1, 2005, any child less than 8 years old or 80 pounds in weight must ride in a booster seat. Violations of this law will result in a $25 fine plus court costs as well as having 2 points placed against driver’s license. However, drivers cited for this violation of this law for a 5,6, or 7 year old will be able to have the charges dismissed if they present proof to the court that they have acquired an appropriate restraint for that child. Statistics have been gathered on safety belt use since this program began and has shown that seat belt use has increased from 65 percent to 84 percent. It has also shown that fatal and serious injuries in North Carolina have been cut by 14 percent. Resulting in a savings of at least $135 million in health care related costs. Other positive ef...
Is there in the world anything more essential than having a new opportunity of life? Although several individuals may possibly think an obligatory use of seat belt is a technique for causing people to feel a prisoner in their own car, putting on a seat belt would make the difference in a car accident. The use of seat belts provides security while driving; shows self-consciousness and has a role in government. That is why, the use of seat belts should be mandatory for drivers.
Child left in car for several hours dies of heat exhaustion and stroke. This headline has become all too common in recent years and it needs to stop. In The Glass Castle, the parents were never responsible for and didn’t care for their children. This is a growing problem in today’s society that can and should be prevented for the following reasons: Many children are left in cars while caretakers shop or even go to work, many children are raised to live off of the system the US government has in place rather than contribute to it, many parents are too dependent on daycare or alternate childcare and spend less and less time with their children, and finally children need love and attention from their parents so they can grow up and be good parents
Even though there are some statistics that may show a lower rate of injury or death if you wear a seat belt when in an automobile accident, I do not feel that the government has the right to make wearing a seat belt mandatory for adults because by making seat belts mandatory it takes away from our right to freedom of choice, and wearing a seat belt does not eliminate the risk of injury or death as people have been injured and/or killed due to wearing a seat belt Current seat belt law originated from federal legislation in the 1960s that made it mandatory for all automobile manufacturers to include seat belts in their vehicles as a standard feature. Originally, the purpose of a seat belt was not to protect the occupants in the case of a crash, but rather to physically keep them in the vehicle, as driving was bumpy business. However, in today’s times, mandatory use of a seat belt falls under various states purview. Each state implements its own laws regarding enforcement of seat belt use.
Many people may choose not to wear a seatbelt because they don’t understand how and why they work. To begin with seatbelts are the first line of defense one has against an injury in a crash.
Orenstein says “more than 15,000 lives are saved each year in the United States because drivers and their passengers were wearing seat belts when they were in accidents.” yes this is true in some cases seatbelts can save lives, and even the staff of the Automotive fleet say seat belts help you from getting thrown forward. This is agreeable because they do prevent you from being thrown forward but seat belts can still throw you forward a little. Also, they again come out and say that a seat belt helps to keep you in a car. Well although that is true it's not always a good thing, because sometimes the top of the car gets crushed and so then the person inside the car gets crushed if they were ejected out of the window sure they would be injured but they could still have a chance to live opposed to being
"What Type of Crash Is Usually the Most Deadliest?" Car SeatOrg Carseat Automobile Child Passenger Safety Community Forums RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 May 2014.
Are Seat-belts Safe or Unsafe? Do you put your seat belt on every time you get in the vehicle? Do you look to see if your passengers are wearing their seat belt? According to the CDC website, Vehicle accidents are one of the leading causes of death in people from the age 1 to 44.
When it comes to school transportation the community believes that is the safest way for their children to get to school, but what everyone does not realize is that lately there have been many school bus crashes where several students have been severely injured and even some have lost their lives because almost all school buses do not have seat belts. The question is how well equipped is the bus and is it safe enough for children to ride? And how do we solve this problem to cut deaths, avoid children getting severely injured, and to protect the community. According to the National Transportation Safety Board, about an average of seven students is killed in school bus crashes each year and thousands students suffer from severe injuries such as: head, shoulders, broken bones, and scratches. This is the reason seat belts should be mandatory even if they will need high maintenance. For instance, when a school bus accident happens and it rolls over, if the children do not have seat belts the chances of children suffering from severe injuries and the chances of deaths should likely to cont...
In the United States, statistics show that car accidents are a leading cause of death in children between 0 and 14 years of age. A significant amount of the fatalities are due to improper restraint of the children while riding in the car. For the younger children, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that toddlers remain rear facing in their car seats until age 2, or until they reach the maximum height and weight for their specified car seat. According to Illinois law, a parent could face their child’s car seat forward at 12 months, as long as the child meets the height and weight requirements for the car seat. The rear facing car seat recommendation should be extended to at least 4 years old in order to protect toddler passengers during car accidents.
Car accidents are the leading cause of death for people under the age of 35. Wearing a seat belt can prevent death in about half of these accidents. Did you know that every 15 seconds someone is injured in an automobile accident if they are not buckled up, or that every 13 minutes someone is killed in a crash. Failure to wear a seat belt contributes to more fatalities than any other single traffic safety related behavior. According to the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration seatbelts saved nearly 12,000 lives in the United States in the year 2000. The NHTSA estimates that more than 9,000 U.S. car accident fatalities in 2000 would have been avoided if the victims had been wearing seatbelts. Sixty three percent of the people killed in accidents were not wearing seat belts. The NHTSA a...
Seatbelts have been around since the 1950s and have proven to save lives over the years. The teenage stigma is that they do not need to wear one because they will be fine. After thousands of accidents where the occupants did not wear their seatbelt, the Supreme Court decided to pass some laws. “In 1972, the agency requires dull passive restraints for front seat occupants” (Supreme Court). The agency that the Supreme Court is referring to is the Department of Transportation. This law is a staple in automobile safety and sets a level of precedents for future laws. After this law was passed, the amount of fatalities from traffic incident relating to seat belts usage had dropped. The Supreme Court did not stop there, they continued to add more laws. “...new motor vehicles produced after September 1982 will be equipped with passive restraints to protect the safety of the occupants of the vehicle in the event of a collision” (Supreme Court). Now all new motor vehicles must have a form of passive restraint added to their vehicles before they can sell them to the public. The government hoped to protect more lives of young drivers who did not insist on wearing seat belts by making them mandatory and being enforced by police officers. Since 1972, hundreds of thousands of teenage lives have been saved with this simple safety
In researching this speech, I have found a source that states statistics that have made the show a total of 32 598 people have died in 2002 and almost 60% from them were not wearing the seatbelt.
Although there are many unsafe things that people should not do while driving such as, texting, reckless driving, speeding, and driving under the influence of drugs and alcohol, however, they still do it because they think they will not cause an accident. No one ever expects to get into a car accident one day while they are driving minding their own business heading towards their destination and suddenly being hit by someone ending up with head and back injuries and a broken hip bone or even fatality. The use of a seat belt may not save you from bodily injuries but it certainly can keep your body in place preventing you from being ejected out of a vehicle that has come to a halt. I’d rather be held in a car during a car accident than to be thrown on the side of a road any
We have all heard the excuses before, “do I have to wear it? It isn’t like it’s going to protect me,” “it’s uncomfortable, I’m only going around the corner,” or “I’d rather be thrown out of the vehicle than to be stuck in a seat belt.” No matter how good of a driver you are, or you think you might be, there are always situations that are beyond your control. Such as, bad weather, drunk drivers, and road conditions. Sometimes, seat belts can be a life or death in an automobile accident. Not only is wearing your seat belt every time you get in a vehicle, but it is required by law in 49 states, with the exception of New Hampshire. Although seat belts are known to lock up and wrinkle your clothes, I believe that wearing your seat belt is beneficial because every fourteen seconds someone is injured in a traffic crash. Seat belts are not only known for holding you in place during a collision, but more importantly the are known to save the lives of the occupants in the vehicle.