About 13 years ago, the RSA, (Road Safety Authority) launched a huge media campaign fronted by Gay Byrne and aimed at reducing deaths on our roads. This was a huge success and over the past decade deaths on our roads fell rapidly. But last year for the first time since 2005, the number of deaths on our roads has actually increased, after an all time low the previous year.
This figure could have been reduced if these passengers had just worn their seatbelts. The seatbelt was designed to hold a person in situ in the car should the car be ever involved in a crash. If a person is not wearing their belt and the car crashes this person could kill those who wearing their seatbelt, how? Simple, if the person is not buckled in and there is a crash this person now becomes a missile and depending on how fast the car was going, say 80 kilometres, the person who is not wearing their belt will then leave their seats at 80 Kilometres + and bang around the inside the car hitting other passengers with the potential to cause deadly injuries.
We all know, even people that don’t drive, it’s against the law to drive without a belt, if you get into a car and you’re only going around the corner always belt up. If you find the seatbelt is faulty change your seat, if you don’t change and there is a smack a faulty belt is like having no belt at all. If all the belts are playing up, don’t take the chance, it’s not worth it, even if you don’t get caught not wearing the belt, by simply wearing one you cut your chances of dying by almost 50% should an accident occur. We’ve all seen the ads and I hate to be pious but caution truly is the better path, convenience is not worth one bad accident.
Here are the figures.
In 2012, the number of deaths on our roads fell greatly to 162, 3 years ahead of the plan set up by the government and the RSA. Prior to this there was an average of 173 deaths per year.
30% of these people who were killed were under the age of 25.
Sunday is the day when most people were killed or in an accident.
67% of the people killed are males.
The hours between 4pm and 6pm were the most dangerous hours with 41% of the deaths.
The safest month of that year was November despite this month been a winter month there were only 8 deaths recorded.
For more useful information go to http://www.rsa.ie/
