Seatbelt Safety

Wearing a seatbelt saves thousands of lives across the UK every year. However, an astonishing seven per cent of drivers still fail to ‘belt-up', despite being aware of the dangers involved and the fact that they are at a much greater risk of injury or death if they are involved in a collision.

Worse still, up to 10 per cent of road deaths in our area occurred as a consequence of drivers or passengers simply failing to put on their seatbelt.

For your safety and the safety of others, the law dictates that you MUST wear a seatbelt, if one is fitted, unless you have a medical exemption certificate. It is essential to wear it, even if your intended journey is only a short one as a collision can occur at any time.

Wearing a seatbelt in the back of the car is also a legal requirement and is just as important as wearing one in the front. Between 8 and 15 front seat users are killed every year by unbelted rear seat passengers. In a crash at 30mph, if you are unrestrained in the back seat, you will hit the front seat (and anyone in it) with a force of between 30 and 60 times your own body weight. If you have passengers in the back of your car, it is essential that you ask them to take just a few seconds to ‘belt-up' as it could save your own life, as well as theirs.

The driver has full responsibility for ensuring that any passengers aged under fourteen years are wearing either their seatbelt or the correct restraint.

Adult passengers (aged fourteen and upwards) are responsible for their own safety and should always ensure that they have secured their seatbelt before the driver sets off. For further details on child safety and restraints, please visit the ‘Child Safety ' section of this site.

West Mercia Police will prosecute drivers and passengers if they are caught without their seatbelts on. The force issues an average of eight (£30) fixed penalty notices per day relating to seatbelt usage and the maximum fine for this offence if the case goes to court is £500.

For more information, visit the Think! Seatbelt Safety website.