Posts tagged "seat belts"

Congress passed a highway bill this summer that calls for putting seat belt use reminders in new cars for rear seat passengers. Most new cars already have seat belt reminders for the front passengers and the reminders are required by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for the car's driver. Now, safety advocates want those reminders in place for backseat passengers in order to reduce fatalities and injuries in car accidents.

According to cars.com, backseat passengers are 44 percent less likely to be fatally injured in a car accident if they are wearing a lap and shoulder belt in a car and 73 percent less likely to be fatally injured if they are wearing a lap and shoulder belt in the backseat of an SUV or van. Backseat passengers are also 40 percent less likely to injure another passenger in the car by becoming a projectile in the event of an accident.

We have all heard the warnings about distracted driving, and everyone knows the importance of avoiding such distractions as texting and driving. Unfortunately, distracted drivers continue to cause serious car accidents every day. Innocent victims are often affected by the negligence of distracted drivers and can suffer very serious personal injuries.

A college student who survived a head-on car accident has recently spoken out about her ordeal in order to help others avoid the situation that she landed in when she looked down for only a moment.

The U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled that federal seat belt regulations do not nullify state tort lawsuits that seek damages from automobile manufacturers who installed lap-only seat belts in some late model vehicles.

The ruling allowed for the continuation of a lawsuit against Mazda Motor Corporation, which arose from a fatal car accident in California in 2002. The accident involved a 1993 Mazda minivan, in which a rear seat passenger was wearing a lap-only seat belt and was killed in a collision.

The lawsuit filed by the deceased passenger's family asserted that the minivan's lack of a lap-and-shoulder seat belt in the rear seat created a dangerous condition in the automobile. Mazda replied, saying that it complied with federal safety regulations that made rear seat lap-and-shoulder seat belts optional. In 2008, a California state court agreed with Mazda and dismissed the lawsuit.