Seat Belts: Do We Really Need Them? In many countries now seat belts are compulsory for the driver and front seat passengers at least.
Most doctors believe that seat belts save people from being seriously hurt in a crash, but there are some people who still think that it is more dangerous to wear a seat belt than not to wear one.
They say that a seat belt may trap one in a car that is burning, or that has fallen into a river or the sea and is sinking, so that one is burnt to death or drowned.
But less than half of one per cent of car accidents lead to fire or sinking, and in any case, a seat belt may easily save a person from being knocked unconscious in an accident, so that he or she is able to undo the seat belt immediately and get out of a car that is on fire or sinking.
People who object to seat belts also sometimes say that without one, one may be thrown right out of a car in a crash, but doctors will tell you that that is the last thing one wants to happen: if one is thrown out of a car, one hits something, usually the road, and usually hard and at speed. It is better to remain inside a car in the case of a crash.
There is also the question of personal freedom; some people say that it is an attack on their freedom to force them to wear a seat belt, whether they want to or not. But even in a democracy there are a lot of things a person is denied the right to do though he or she wants to do them. I may, for example, want to play music loudly at night; it interferes with my freedom if I am not allowed to do this. But my neighbours have their own rights to freedom, just as I have. They want to be free to sleep quietly at night, and if I stop them doing so, I am interfering with their freedom.
How does this affect seat belts? In what way does it interfere with the rights of others if someone refuses to wear a seat belt? Well, first of all because common sense tells us that a driver without a seat belt has less control of a car if there is an accident, so that he or she is more likely to be a danger to others, who after all also have the right to be protected as much as possible from accident. |