Seat belts or safety restraints have been a mandatory vehicle component for decades. Manufacturers have to install restraints to help people stay safe in the event of a collision, and people in motor vehicles generally need to use these restraints.
Safety restraints often make the difference between the force of a collision throwing someone out of the vehicle and the person remaining safely inside the vehicle throughout the collision. Those thrown from a vehicle are at risk of severe and potentially fatal injuries.
Despite their importance, some people prefer not to use safety restraints. They may reference the possibility of seat belt injuries as the justification for declining to wear them. Is it true that seat belts can actually harm people rather than save their lives?
Seat belts can cause injuries
There is a grain of truth to the belief that seat belts can injure vehicle occupants. In high-speed collisions where people are at risk of getting thrown from a vehicle, the violence of the collision can cause restraint-related injuries to vehicle occupants.
Some medical professionals refer to these injuries as seat belt syndrome. They typically involve bruising or even cuts where the seat belt makes contact with a person’s body. People can also develop internal bleeding caused by the force of the restraints keeping them in the vehicle.
While those injuries can be serious and may require emergency medical care, the alternative is often a fatal injury sustained during ejection from the vehicle. People thrown from vehicles frequently develop catastrophic injuries, including brain injuries, spinal cord injuries and traumatic amputations.
The bruising or internal bleeding caused by safety restraints is truly minimal when compared with the fatal injuries likely to occur when people do not wear safety restraints. According to federal statistics, seat belt use likely saves 15,000 lives per year. Consistently wearing safety restraints and requiring that passengers do the same can help drivers reduce the risk of a poor outcome if a collision occurs.
People dealing with the aftermath of seat belt syndrome and other car crash injuries may need help pursuing compensation for their losses. Filing an insurance claim or even a lawsuit may be necessary when motor vehicle collisions cause serious injuries.