Few of us (actually, about 1 in 20 according to DfT figures) would even consider driving without wearing a seat belt, yet even though it became mandatory for cars to be fitted with seat belts back in 1965 it would be a further 18 years before we were compelled to use them (the penalty for not doing so is now a £60 fine).
So why was the process so drawn out? Part of the issue was civil liberties. The law was effectively looking to protect drivers from themselves and many believed that to force the wearing of seat belts was a state infringement of basic civil liberties. Today there are still around 1 in twenty of us refuses to belt up and those who flout the law are more likely to be killed in an accident. According to the DfT: “In 2009, of the 1,059 car occupants killed in crashes, 21% were not wearing a seat belt.”
In 2009, of the 1,059 car occupants killed in crashes, 21% were not wearing a seatbelt
Below is a brief timeline on how the seat belt law finally came about.
1970s – Various bills calling for the introduction of the wearing of seat belts were defeated in the Houses of Parliament.
1978-79 – Labour MP William Rodgers saw his private members bill get through two readings, but it had to be dropped after his party lost the 1979 general election.
1979-80 – A similar bill introduced by Neil Carmichael also failed.
1980 – Lord Nugent of Guildford, President of RoSPA, introduced a bill via the upper house. But even though it had a majority at second reading it failed for ‘procedural reasons’.
1981 – Lord Nugent tried again, this time with an amendment to the Transport Bill which would lead to a three-year trial of seat belts. This bill became law… with the amendment.
1983, 31st January – The wearing of seat belts in the front of cars came into force.
1986 – At the end of the three-year trial both MPs and Lords voted overwhelmingly to make the requirement permanent.
1989 – It became mandatory for children sitting in the rear of cars to wear a seat belt.
1991 – Wearing a seat belt in the back of a car became compulsory for all.
Source: RoSPA
This is actually not a useful statistic – apart from begging the counter argument, “In 2009, of the 1,059 car occupants killed in crashes, 79% were wearing a seatbelt“.
A more useful statement would be something like: prior to 1991, an average of xxxx people were killed per billion traffic miles in car crashes due impact with the inside of the vehicle; since 1991 yyy people were killed in a similar way per billion traffic miles – zz% (high number) of these were not wearing a seat belt. That equates to approximately nn lives saved per year.
It’s not exactly a sound-bite however!
I think you’re right and I did consider possible responses such as yours, however as it was a DfT ‘sound-bite’ rather than one of ours I decided to include it – if only to stimulate debate.
I could also have added the much quoted figure of 60,000 lives having been saved up to the 25th anniversary of the introduction of the law but I thought that would open up its own can of worms – though I suppose that is what a blog is all about.
So why do “in twenty of us refuses to belt up”? Has any research been done? Might “Emergency Services Reality shows” showing people being cut out of severely crashed cars actually contribute to this (minority) distrust of seatbelts?
I knew someone (a magistrate!) who swore that it was far better to be “thrown clear” than to be “trapped in a crashed car”, so he did not belt up.
How can we demonstrate that in most crashes (sufficient to project an unrestrained driver/passenger through the windscreen) the safety cells of most cars will retain their integrity (despite what the TV shows appear to show) and therefore being restrained in your car is your best hope for retaining your own physical integrity.
Few people understand the effect of a couple of tons of motor vehicles colliding at a closing speed of say 100mph and do not understand that vehicle structures are much stronger than human structures.
What we need now is a bright spark to invent some clever innovation that makes safe car seating for kids as simple an seamless as an adult clicking a seatbelt no matter what car they step into–