

Aside from the more common subcutaneous bruising on many patients, doctors around the country tend to notice sternal fractures as the most common seatbelt-related injury following a traffic accident. Typically, these injuries include chest or abdominal abrasions in the area of contact with the seatbelt. As some experts in the medical field have pointed out, the increase in roadway accidents combined with a greater percentage of seatbelt use among the public has apparently led to an increase in safety belt injury rates. While the debate of such things is relative, consider that there are some chest and abdominal injuries that can be caused by wearing a safety belt during a high-speed car crash.

In general, there are injuries that arise from seatbelt use, though it is important to ask if the alternative that of possibly being killed in a car wreck instead of injured is a better alternative. At the law offices of Lebowitz & Mzhen Personal Injury Lawyers, we understand how a poorly designed product or one that is manufactured incorrectly can cause more harm than good the same can occasionally be said about seat belts and air bags. And while there are many good things to say about the benefits of safety belts in general, there are occasional situations where the occupant of a motor vehicle is badly injured due to those self-same seat belts. As Baltimore auto accident lawyers, we at Lebowitz & Mzhen Personal Injury Lawyers, are happy to see more people being saved (more than 12,000 in 2009 alone) by such simple items as seatbelts.Īs Maryland auto accident attorneys, we often see how people have to take the good with the bad.

shows the greatest overall seatbelt usage at an incredible 95 percent. And if one compares different regions of the country, the western portion of the U.S. reached 85 percent back in 2010, up a mere percentage point from the previous year. According to the National Highway Safety Administration (NHTSA), safety belt use across the whole of the U.S. It is interesting to see how long it has taken the majority of the American public to embrace seatbelt use as a means to surviving more car and truck crashes.
#Little disc on seat belt driver
One sobering note here is that half of all fatal traffic accidents involve at least one passenger or driver who was not properly secured with a safety belt.

Seat belts have been shown to increase the odds of a rear-seat passenger surviving a crash in a passenger van or SUV by almost 75 percent. And those earlier figures were just for front-seat passengers. It could certainly be said that, on the whole, many people who were wearing a safety belt during a bad traffic collision likely lived to file an injury claim against the negligent driver who caused his or her injuries rather than having the victim’s estate file a wrongful death claim on the deceased’s behalf. These simple devices also contribute to a 50-percent reduction in moderate-to-critical injuries as well. When used by the occupants of cars, pickup trucks, minivans and sport utility vehicles (SUVs), seat belts reduce the risk of fatal injury to front seat occupants by about 45 percent. There is no sense arguing with the statistics: safety belts have been saving countless lives since their introduction in passenger cars more than half a century ago.
