Seatbelts save (some) lives

It’s pretty standard that headlines (and often politicians) overstate the likely effect of road safety precautions — eg, the claim that lowering the blood alcohol limit would prevent all deaths in which drivers were over the limit, which it obviously won’t.

This is from the Herald’s front page.

On the left, the number 94 is the number of people who died in crashes while not wearing seatbelts. On the right (and in the story), the we find that this is about a third of all the deaths. It’s quite possible to wear a seatbelt and still die in a crash.

Looking for research, I found this summary from a UK organisation that does independent reviews on road safety issues. They say seatbelts in front seats prevent about 45% of fatal injuries in front seat passengers. For rear-seat passengers the data are less clear.

So, last year probably about 45 people died on our roads because they weren’t wearing seatbelts. That’s a big enough number to worry about: we don’t need to double it.