In fact, we have known since the 1950s that seat belts save lives. Volvo was able to prove this early on with its crash test dummies. The company`s engineers then showed that the use of a seat belt reduced accidental deaths from car accidents by 50%.3 Several studies later, this statistic applies. In India, all cars manufactured after March 25, 1994 are equipped with front seat belts. The system was extended to the rear seats in 2002. Seat belt use is to be implemented by the respective States, with most States making seat belt use mandatory for front passengers in 2002. Older vehicles that did not originally wear seat belts were excluded. However, enforcement is weak in most parts of the country. A counterpoint to the libertarian view is that by reducing fatalities and serious injuries, seat belt requirements and seat belt enforcement result in significant social benefits. For example, an analysis by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that in 2010, non-fatal injuries to motor vehicle occupants cost the U.S.
$48 billion in medical costs and job losses. [52] For example, an unrestrained driver who kills or injures another road user because he or she slips out of the correct sitting position and cannot regain control of the vehicle in slippery conditions. Another notable scenario is that rear passengers are pushed forward in an accident, accidentally injuring the driver or front passenger. A study from the University of Wisconsin showed that car accident victims who weren`t wearing their seat belts cost the hospital (and the state, in the case of the uninsured) an average of 25 percent more. [53] A person wearing a seat belt in a motor vehicle; Image courtesy of CDC, 1990. Twenty-three states, the District of Columbia, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands had seat belt use rates of 90 percent or higher in 2017. [7] Ironically, insurance companies can once again be an instrument of social change. Previously, they insisted that not wearing a seat belt was an unacceptable and preventable risk. Now, insurance companies are making the same argument about vaccine failure. In July, for example, 76,000 unvaccinated adults in the U.S. were hospitalized with COVID-19.
The average cost of each hospital stay was $20,000. If you do the math, the cost of caring for unvaccinated patients admitted for COVID-19 was $1.5 billion in July alone.15 4 Kansas, Maryland, and New Jersey have the Secondary Enforcement Act for rear occupants (18+ in Kansas).5 These states score points on the driving record for seat belt injuries.6 In California, an additional penalty of $29 is applied to every $10 or a fraction thereof, of any fine, penalty or forfeiture imposed and forfeited by the court for offences, including all traffic offences, except parking offences within the meaning of paragraph (i) of the Penal Code § 1463. The additional penalty is calculated as follows: $10 state penalty according to CP 1464, $7 district penalty according to GC 76000(e), $5 penalty for construction of court facilities according to GC 70372(a), $5 penalty for DNA Identification Fund according to GC 76104.6 and 76104.7, $2 penalty for emergency services according to GC 76000.5.
