Just do it; belt-up!

Gerald Maguranyanga Traffic Friday
MY know-it-all everyday comrade, with the competence to solve numerous questions and riddles, known by her single moniker, Wikipedia, describes the vehicle apparatus I swear by . . . “The seat belt (safety belt) is a vehicle safety device designed to secure the occupant of a vehicle against harmful movement that may result during a collision or a sudden stop. A seat belt functions to reduce the likelihood of death or serious injury, in a traffic collision, by reducing the force of secondary impacts with interior strike hazards, keeping an occupant positioned correctly for maximum effectiveness of the airbag (if equipped) and by preventing an occupant from being ejected from the vehicle in a crash.” It is remarkable that the very first patent for a seat belt was issued in the US way-back in 1880-something! The two-point seat belt was only adopted for widespread use in military aircraft during World War 2, and thereafter in some cars. In the 1950s, following an increase in automobile (car) use, it was observed that there was a huge number of serious head and spinal injuries following widespread car accidents, and the race was on to limit that.

Clever Wiki advises that before 1959, only the two-point lap belt was available in some cars; for the most part, the only people who regularly buckled-up were race car drivers. The two-point belt strapped across the body, with a buckle placed over the abdomen, and in high-speed crashes had been known to cause serious harm. In 1958, Volvo hired Bohlin, a very smart Swede; an engineer who had designed ejector seats for Saab (Swedish) fighter airplanes in 1950, to be the company’s first safety engineer. (A much-loved relative of the Volvo CEO had died in a car crash. That distressing collision motivated Volvo to significantly increase its safety measures.) Bohlin had worked with the more elaborate four-point harness in airplanes, and knew that system would be unfriendly in a car. In designing the new seat belt, he concentrated on providing a more effective method of protecting the car occupant against the impact of the deadly, swift deceleration forces that occurred when a car crashed. In a study, Volvo established that in a crash, unbelted rear passengers increased the death risk of belted front seat occupants, five-fold!

Fellow Zimbabweans, that swift deceleration, you’ll never perceive in real time. It happens super fast, causing untold grievous injury to your body’s internal organs; the brain, the heart, the lungs etc; which are slammed against your internal wall, leading to much pain, if not  quick death. The best antidote is using the proven, clever safety harness; the seat belt, which WILL stop your body from propulsion into a fellow occupant, or the seat in front of you or in the worst case, projecting your body out of the vehicle.

Soon, Bohlin designed the much-more effective modern, three-point, lap-and-shoulder seat belt, introduced in Volvo cars in 1959, and considered THE most important innovation in automobile safety to date – a simple but revolutionary transition from the two–point seat belt that would spectacularly improve safety. The new seat belt secured both the upper and lower body; its straps joined at hip level by a simple buckle, which could hold the body safely in place, in the event of a crash. The rest, as they say, is history.

Car safety extremists, Volvo, estimate that the three-point seat belt, in the four decades to 2009, since it was introduced, had directly saved more than one million lives worldwide. Quite paradoxically, in Africa’s most-literate nation, educated buffoons flourish. At any turn, they swear against the seat belt, trivialising it as a device that could trap you in your vehicle following a smash, causing you to fry should the vehicle burn! (Just like the fool that claims he is a better driver after a few beers!) What inexpert, pub bull dust! Many of us have watched one-too-many movies, which always show motor vehicles erupting into sky-high flames on impact. That is just a make-believe falsehood ladies and gentlemen – designed for entertainment drama, with no relationship to real life.

The safety belt, just like any other gadget must be used appropriately or it becomes hazardous. Generally, children below a certain weight should never be strapped in a seat belt without a child car seat. (In the fussy UK, they have stringent, detailed seat belt regulations for children up to age 12!) For most children, a seat booster, which helps position the child appropriately for the best protection in the event of a collision or rollover, must be used. But then, the lack of commonplace seat belt use in turn, births the lack of the child car seat, a much-rare apparatus at home. The potentially lethal business of an unrestrained child (usually stands in between the front seat, or God forbid, stands, completely unrestrained, on the passenger seat) in a motor vehicle in motion is grossly irresponsible, and should be frowned upon by any parent – and the law. (We shall robustly tackle the child car seat topic in an upcoming instalment). For some reason, many people respond better when the weight of the law descends heavily on them. That “weight of the law”, for crying-out-loud, cannot be a measly US$5 fine please – as portrayed in police schedules!

Local police have, at best, not rigorously enforced the use of the seat belt. At worst, they have completely ignored enforcing seat belt compliance. At that, it’s a no brainer trying to enforce seat belt use from a roadblock! A mobile, preferably unmarked police unit would have a field day ticketing offenders, as the disciplined use of this vital device is nearly non-existent. (A casual observation seems to show that women adorn the seat belt much more than men; indestructible men of steel – really?) There are many not-so-clever drivers and passengers alike that dangerously, as a result of little knowledge, assume that because a car is equipped with air bags, it substitutes the seat belt. Fact is; the air bag is only an AID to the usefulness of the seat belt. In any case, the air bag, with its complex electrical wiring and sensors, has been known to fail to deploy at all, with potential grave consequences for the occupant not restrained by the simple, tried-and-tested safety belt.

Traffic Friday argues that in this oh-so-literate nation, much monkey business abounds; so we have to re-educate the amateurish ones on the life-and-death importance of the seat belt. Sadly, many adults are dunder-heads; they cannot be taught anything new – these daft ones the law must force into compliance through punitive measures – not the paltry US$5 fine. It is Friday; let’s keep the driving, this weekend, and for all times; happy, happy; happy-happy-happy!

Gerald Maguranyanga moderates Road Safety Africa, on www.facebook.com/RoadSafetyAfrica, an interactive page that solicits ideas to curb road traffic accidents in Zimbabwe and Africa. Contacts: WhatsApp only – +263 772 205 300; email: [email protected]