• “Every person, every seat, every trip” is the surest way to ensure everyone in a vehicle is safe.
• In Minnesota it is legal for passengers in the back seat ages 11 and older not to wear a seat belt.
• Seat belts are your best defense against a drunk driver.
• Each year, roughly three-fourths of Minnesota teens killed in crashes are not wearing a safety belt .
• On average, unbelted crash victims had hospital discharge costs 94 percent greater than belted occupants.
• Wearing a seat belt reduces the risk of death in a head-on crash by an average of more than 50%, and the risk of death in a roll-over crash by 74-80%.
• A seat belt ticket which can cost you approximately $125 (including court fees).
• Seat belts reduce your risk of fatal injury by 45% in a car and 60% in a light truck.
• Being in a 35 MPH crash without a seat belt is the same as falling from a 3rd story window.
• Research done at the University of Buffalo (NY), found that by not buckling up, back seat passengers endanger drivers in the vehicle in which they’re riding. Researchers found that when rear passengers sitting directly behind the driver don’t buckle up, they triple their odds of dying in a head-on crash and double the odds that the driver will be killed.
• Children model adult behavior. If adults do not buckle up consistently, children will not either.
• A seat-belted driver has a better chance of maintaining control of the vehicle during and immediately following a collision, protecting passengers and others on the road.
• The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reports that 83 percent of vehicle ejection victims lose their lives because of sustained injuries.
• A child in a vehicle with a drinking driver is not only at risk from the impaired driver, but also from the lack of safety restraint use (like a seat belt or child safety seat), as drinking drivers are much less likely to make sure a child is properly restrained.
• A survey of American’s who don’t wear seat belts resulted in a list of excuses such as “the seat belt wrinkles my clothes.” One emergency room nurse, upon hearing this excuse exclaimed, “the first thing we doin the emergency room is cut off their clothes.”