Seat belts secure our safety on the roads to a great extent, but do we use them?
When late Lee Jong-Wook, former Director General of the World Health Organisation said, “Road safety is no accident,” he probably had the millions of road users in India in mind who ignore safety precautions such as wearing seat belts. Ca
se histories abound of lives saved thanks to the seat belt. Recounting the story of a lucky survivor , Dr. S. Sivamurugan, Orthopaedic Surgeon, Dr. Soundarapandian Bone and Joint Hospital, says, “Rohit is a successful business executive in his early thirties. Constantly on the move, traversing across cities was part of his job description . On that eventful December evening, while trying to negotiate a curve on the highway, his car crashed . But he escaped with minor injuries thanks to his seat belt.”
Says Dr. Sivamurugan, “In the event of a car crash, seat belts are intended to keep you in place and reduce injuries (such as injuries to the head, spine face, chest, abdomen, hips) by preventing you from hitting hard, interior elements of the vehicle (such as the dashboard and windshield) or other passengers and preventing you from being thrown out of the vehicle.”
Explains S. M. Iqbal, president, Rane TRW Steering Systems, “The passengers’ chest and other parts of the body are protected by not allowing movement beyond the specified level as per standards. Many times people are reluctant to wear the seat belt because they feel they are tied down to the seat and their movement restricted. This is a wrong notion. The seat belt design allows normal movement but restrains the occupant from moving to an unsafe position.”
Why don’t people wear seat belts ? “People imagine that they need to wear seat belts only for long distance travel. This is a grave blunder as head on collisions even on local trips can cause serious injuries,” says Dr. Sivamurugan. Or it’s a case of drivers who feel that they are good at the wheel. So buckle up that seat belt as a matter of habit.
SUDHA UMASHANKER
Printer friendly
page Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
