Seat belts

Back-seat passengers

We all know we should use seat belts in the front of a car, but many of us don’t realise how dangerous it is if we don’t use one in the back. Some people worry that they can get trapped by their seat belt after a crash. This is extremely unlikely – the benefits of using a seat belt far outweigh the chances of this happening.

In a crash at a speed of 30mph an adult back-seat passenger is thrown forward with a force of three and a half tonnes – that’s the weight of an elephant. It’s not hard to see why a back-seat passenger who is not wearing a seat belt has a higher chance of being killed and of killing the person sitting in front of them.

Forty front-seat passengers die each year as a result of back-seat passengers not wearing their seat belts. Only 48% of adult passengers wear belts in the back of the car, compared with 92% in the front.

Seat belt checks

Across East Sussex road safety and police officers carry out seat belt checks and levy on-the-spot fines for those not wearing one.