This week (March 5-9) is Brain Injury Prevention Week across the country and the Sudbury and Espanola OPP detachments continue to focus on traffic safety as part of this event.
Officers would like to remind everyone of the importance of wearing a seatbelt and ensuring children are secured in an appropriate child restraint.
According to the 2004 Ontario Road Safety Annual Report:
- It’s a fact that seatbelts save lives. Wearing your seatbelt is the single most effective way to reduce the chance of injury or death in motor vehicle collisions.
- Non-fatal brain and spinal cord injuries leave many survivors with permanent disabilities affecting speech, vision, movement, cognitive function and behaviour.
- Using a seatbelt or properly installed child restraint will reduce the risk of death in a motor vehicle collision by 75 percent and it will reduce the chance of injury by 55 percent.
- Since 1976 (when wearing a seatbelt was made mandatory in Ontario), motor vehicle collisions injuries have steadily declined but there is still more work to be done.
On Dec. 1t, 2006, the Ontario government implemented a new law that requires every driver and every passenger to wear a seatbelt or use a child restraint while traveling in a motor vehicle. The legislation will put a stop to many preventable deaths on Ontario’s roads.
Transport Canada estimates that every one percent increase in seatbelt use will save five lives each year.
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