Seat belt safety includes wearing your seat belt and wearing it correctly.

Studies from NHTSA show an average of 15,000 lives are saved in vehicle crashes through seat belt use.

A study from TranSafety shows wearing a shoulder/lap belt alone reduces the risk of serious injury even more than using an airbag with a shoulder/lap belt.

Consequences of an unbelted passenger

At a 2010 traffic safety conference I attended, a young man in his early 20s spoke. When he was about 14 years old he was riding in a van with his best friend driving. He was the only person not wearing a seat belt, not because he refused to, but because all the seat belts were taken by other passengers.

The road was wet, they were on a winding downhill slope when his friend lost control, the van rolled, he was ejected and received serious injuries to his head and other parts of his body.

He now has no memory of his life before the crash, everything he knows about his life before the collision is what friends and family have told him. He also must write notes of everything that happens throughout every day to remember the events that happen each day.

Every year since the crash he has had to have life-sustaining surgeries to different parts of his body, the cost going into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Because of the expense, his family was forced to sue his best friends' family for the medical costs. Needless to say, the boy who was his best friend is now not his friend at all and neither families speak to each other.

All others in the van, including his friend who was driving sustained at the most minor injuries. They were all wearing seat belts.
Also there was no alcohol involved in this collision

Consider all the costs of the damage from this collision with just one unbelted passenger.