Seatbelts and child restraints

Home > Safer People > Issues > Seatbelts >

You can double your chance of surviving a car crash with one simple action.

Using a seatbelt reduces the risk of death for front seat car occupants by around 50 per cent. Yet, every year up to 33% of fatally injured Australian car occupants (about 300) and 19 per cent of the seriously injured (about 4,200) are unbelted. Some of these are children.

Because seatbelts and child restraints are so effective in saving lives and preventing injuries, laws have been enacted to make the wearing of seatbelts compulsory under most circumstances, and to make the driver responsible for the restraint of children.

How do they work?
If you are traveling at 60 kilometers per hour and hit a solid object such as a large tree, the car will come to a sudden stop. Unfortunately, your speed and that of any other passenger will still be 60 kilometers per hour. If you are not wearing seat belts, all occupants of the car will keep moving forward at that speed until they hit an object in front of them, such as the steering wheel or dashboard or are ejected through the windscreen and hit the tree.

How do they protect the body?
A seat belt is usually a lap belt, which extends over the pelvis, and a shoulder belt, which straps across the chest. These two sections of the belt are fixed firmly to the chassis of the vehicle. If a crash occurs, the belt will apply most of the force to the shoulder, sternum and pelvis, which are relatively less vulnerable parts of the body. The webbing material used in seatbelts has some flexibility and reduces the sudden impact of the crash by allowing just a little stretching.

How do they fit with new vehicle developments?
Crumple zones are areas in the front and rear of the vehicle that are designed to collapse on impact, which reduces the force transmitted to the people inside. However, they can only protect people effectively if they are wearing the seatbelts fastened to the passenger compartment, so that they decelerate with the vehicle.

Seat belts and restraints work with other developments such as airbags and car crumple zones to absorb the impact of a crash. Researchers are working on new technologies such as seat belt reminder systems and driver headbands. However none of these replace seat belts.

Safety tips

• Check the age of your seatbelts and replace frayed and damaged seat belts promptly.
• Always use seat belts and child restraints, even if your vehicle is equipped with air bags.

Child restraint use in South Australia
Some children are still unrestrained in vehicles. Restraint-use surveys conducted in Adelaide and rural South Australia in 2000 and 2002 showed:

• about 6% of children (15 years or younger) were not using restraints
• more children were unrestrained than adults.

Safety tips

• The rear seat is the safest seating position for children
• Show them you use your seat belt and don’t start the car until they do.

Links
ATSB publication on A Simple Guide to Child Restraints (202 kb)

Refer to the Transport SA website for more information on seatbelts and child restraints