CSDD launches campaign urging drivers to wear seat belts

Latvia’s Road Traffic Safety Directorate, or CSDD, has launched a campaign urging people to wear seat belts after 17 people killed in road crashes this year were not wearing them, LSM reported.

Seat belt use remains one of the main factors determining whether people survive serious road crashes. Last year, 20 people who died in crashes were not wearing seat belts. The State Police records several thousand unrestrained passengers each year.

People who are not wearing seat belts can be thrown from a vehicle or tossed around inside the cabin during a collision. Safety experts and medical professionals say wearing a seat belt can prevent serious injuries and save lives.

In one crash last November, three people were killed and two were seriously injured. Although the vehicle’s cabin was almost undamaged, the occupants were thrown out of the car and through its windows because they were not wearing seat belts.

“They were scattered across the field. In some cases, the car rolled over them. Some had been thrown a very long distance, very high and very far. And if a person partially falls out of a car, the vehicle, as it rolls, simply breaks them into pieces,” CSDD road safety expert Oskars Irbītis said, describing the crash.

Doctors also linked serious injuries to the lack of seat belts in a crash involving a minibus carrying children last January. Several passengers were injured after being thrown around inside the vehicle, while the conductor, who was also not wearing a seat belt, died.

In another crash involving a school bus last year, only passengers who had not been wearing seat belts suffered injuries.

Experts also say that unsafe behaviour on the road can involve several factors at once. People who do not wear seat belts often also exceed the speed limit, while drivers who get behind the wheel while dizzy may break multiple safety rules.