Guest Blog: Don’t Ditch Seatbelt Safety on Vacation

 AAA Reminds Travelers to Use Their Seatbelts in Cabs and Shuttle Vans

AAA Northern California is reminding summer travelers that seatbelt safety shouldn’t set sail just because you’re on vacation. Sometimes a false sense of safety can set in as vacationers leave their worries behind, and they forget to buckle up in taxicabs and shuttle vans. But the danger of being in a crash doesn’t fade away like a tropical sunset.

“You can leave all your cares behind while on vacation but don’t leave behind your habit of buckling up,” said AAA Northern California spokesperson Matt Skryja. “In the rush to relax, travelers sometimes forget basic safety while riding in taxi cabs and shuttle vans by failing to use their seatbelts. Safety should never get short shrift just because one is away from home.”

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) says that each day about 38 people who didn’t use their seatbelts are killed in motor vehicle crashes in the United States. In 2008, about 14,000 people who did not buckle up were killed in crashes throughout the U.S. Almost half of them could have been saved if they had only worn their seatbelts.

“For perspective, the force of an impact at just 30 miles per hour is like trying to catch a 300 pound barbell if it were dropped on you from 20 feet. Nobody is that strong,” said Skryja. “At 10 miles per hour, you’d still have to catch that 300 pound barbell if it were dropped from two feet. This is assuming that you saw the crash coming. Many impacts occur without a moment’s notice, and when you’re in a cab or shuttle van your attention is typically more on the scenery than the traffic.”