Should Police Officers Wear Seatbelts

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Wearing a seatbelt can be a safety procedure for many but, for others wearing a seatbelt can be viewed as a “risk” or “a trap for drivers who wreck in their vehicles.” Most people wear seat belts to prevent being thrown from their vehicles in a crash, and for the people, who do not wear seatbelts, they either fear being hurt by the seat belt or they simply do not want to wear one. There are other possible reasons why to not wear a seatbelt or to make the choice to wear a seat belt. Despite regular citizens wearing their seatbelt, even police officers do not wear their seat belts. According to “Enforce Seat Belt Violations for Police Officers,” Johnson (2011) concluded that 42 percent of police officers involved in crashes in the past three …show more content…

According to Robert Gannon’s article “Who Needs a Seat Belt?”he explains, “Without a seat belt, he will be twice as likely to be killed or seriously injured” (Gannon 5). This means that anyone not wearing a seat belt has a greater chance of dying or getting seriously injured in a car accident. After reading this statistic most would decide to wear a seatbelt. Concluded by Robert Gannon’s article, “... over 10,000 lives a year would be saved and those who would have been seriously injured would escape with cuts and bruises” (Gannon 11). Wearing a seatbelt can prevent a significant number of lives from being lost due to car crashes or accidents each year. Furthermore, Gannon introduces the idea of not only can car accidents without seatbelts affect the people in the crash, but this can mentally affect the paramedics and people who come to the scene. Gannon explains in detail scenes from the accidents stating, “Jim Rostek works for one of 13 paramedic units in the country. Ride with him awhile and you’ll forever remember the 30­year­old stevedore with a ruptured spleen, broken legs, cracked ribs, and a concussion, who kept saying “Don’t hurt my arm!” when the arm wasn’t even scratched”(Gannon …show more content…

Fatalities do not only happen to regular citizens, they also happen to law enforcement officers. As reported by Martin Ruiz in his article “Enforced Seat Belt Violations for Police Officers”, he reports, “according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) data, there were 64 officers who died in crashes between the years 2004 to 2008. Officers felt that if they had to confront a suspect quickly, then the seatbelt could become entangled on the holster” (Ruiz 12). Officers all complain that wearing a seat belt is an “officer safety” issue and that it slows down their mobility when it comes to arriving to a scene (Ruiz 2). He also reveals, “The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (2011) found that there where were 733 crashes with bodily injuries from the year 1980 through 2008 with officers not wearing their seat belts”(Ruiz 2). This is primarily because officers feel that wearing a seatbelt makes them less efficient of performing their jobs. In accordance to, “System of Motor Vehicle Safety Belt Design Elements and Case Study,”“Seatbelts are estimated to reduce the overall risk for serious injuries in crashes by 60­70 percent and the risk for fatalities by about 45 percent.”(Iovanescu 247). Therefore, using the seatbelt as intended by the designers and creators of the seatbelt it is supposed to save lives. As for people who do not wear their seatbelts, they simply complain that “it's uncomfortable”

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