By BEN CAMERON
NEARLY one in 10 people killed on Victorian roads last year were not wearing a seatbelt.
Some 44 years after the state became the world’s first jurisdiction to make the wearing of seatbelts mandatory, Traffic Accident Commission figures have revealed 25 of the 242 people who died on the state’s roads last year were not wearing them.
A total of18 people killed last year on regional Victorian roads were not wearing a seatbelt, compared to seven in metropolitan Melbourne.
TAC chief executive officer Janet Dore said, despite the figures, the vast majority of Victorians wore a seatbelt every time they got into a car.
“After four decades of strong campaigning for seatbelts, our own research into driver behavior indicates 97 per cent of licence holders buckle up all the time. We need that to be 100 per cent,” she said.
“What we’re also finding through crash analysis is that in those cases where people are killed or seriously injured without a seatbelt on, another contributing factor such as alcohol is often present.”
Ms Dore said wearing a seatbelt could reduce the risk of dying in a crash by 40 to 50 per cent for drivers and front-seat passengers and 25 per cent for rear-seat passengers.
“Despite the proven benefits of wearing a seatbelt, a small minority of people still seem to think they are invincible but, as we know, accidents do happen and if you’re not wearing one, the chance that you will die or suffer a serious injury is greatly increased,” she said.
Melton resident George Greaves, who lost his younger brother and an uncle in two separate incidents in which neither was wearing a seatbelt, joined the TAC’s calls for Victorians to buckle up.
“It’s something as simple as reaching across and clicking your seatbelt in and if you don’t do it, it could be your parents or your brother or sister who gets the call from police telling them you won’t be coming home,” Mr Greaves said.
“In my brother’s case there was alcohol and excessive speed involved. My uncle’s crash was a pretty simple rollover and the police were certain at the time that he would have survived if he was wearing a belt.
“Families who lose a loved one on the road never fully recover and in our case, with both accidents, you’re always reminded of what a waste of life it was and what might have been if they were buckled up,” he said.
