AA has called for less reluctance toward the wearing of seatbelts. Image: iStock
A refusal to buckle up, which still is prevalent among many South African, requires better enforcement and drastic action against those unwilling to adhere to one of the basic road safety laws.
This is according to the Automobile Association (AA) following not only the release of the recent festive season accident fatalities, but also a report in 2021 that ranked South Africa within the top countries whose drivers are most reluctant to wear seatbelts.
According to zutobi.com, only 31% of South African drivers buckle up, a figure that places the country sixth behind Cuba (30%), Ecuador (26%), Peru (15.8%) and India (7.5%). Topping the list is Bolivia, whose safety belt wear rate came to 3.5%.
“Every study that has been done shows that seatbelts save lives. Yet, people still believe ‘it won’t happen to me, I won’t be involved in a crash (so why I do neem them)’”, AA spokesperson Layton Beard told The Citizen.
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Despite the festive season report not highlighting the differences between occupants wearing seatbelts and not, Beard reiterated previous calls for a better application of the law as “checking for expired licence disks at roadblocks and fining people for this doesn’t result in safer driving”.
He, however, stated that more vigilance from law enforcers is required as those refusing to wear seatbelt, will simply put it on and then take them off again before and after being stopped.
In the same instance to drink driving, Beard stated that the AA is of the opinion that, in addition to better enforcing, education about the danger of not wearing seatbelts needs to be instituted in order to prevent more unnecessary fatalities.
According to a 2020 survey by the National Safety Council in North America, 15.68% of accident surviving drivers weren’t wearing any type of restraint compared to 84.32% who did.
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“People are meant to believe that nothing will happen to them because they are amazing drivers and that everything will be okay. We need more campaigns about road safety, education around road safety and how they need to be applied,” Beard concluded.
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