Oh, please, just belt up!

Dec 1 2008 Jackie Violet

Oh, please, just belt up!

THE invention of seatbelts has to be heralded as the most important safety feature on cars ever.

In 1983 the wearing of seatbelts for front occupants became compulsory in the UK and since then it has been estimated that seatbelts have prevented 60,000 deaths and 670,000 serious injuries.

Many of you may remember the TV adverts warning us to belt up. Jimmy Savile was the main man behind the advert with the catchy slogan of 'Clunk Click Every Trip'.

Years later, it became law for rear passengers to belt up with that chilling THINK! advert that shows the teenage son, sitting in the rear, with the mother driving. They are involved in an accident and the son, not buckled-up, is thrown forward, hits the back of his mother's seat and consequently kills her.

One thing is for sure, whoever is behind the government's THINK! campaign sure knows how to produce spine-chilling, hard-hitting TV adverts guaranteed to grab every road-user's attention.

So I was quite shocked to hear that the government has launched another THINK! campaign, reiterating the importance of wearing seatbelts. Surely this had been drummed into all and sundry already. Well, apparently not.

The £2.6 million campaign launched under the THINK! banner comes after research showed that while very few people never wear a seat belt, many drivers and passengers are gambling with their lives by not belting-up every time they get in a car.

The government claims that one life could be saved each day if all drivers and passengers belted-up every time they got in a car.

£2.6 million is a lot of money to spend on imbeciles who refuse to conform to the law and risk, not just their own lives, but also other innocent ones around them.

However, the campaign is under way and I saw the TV advert last night. It simply left me cold. Stunned into silence, I could not believe how gripping and effective this advert was.

Using graphic images of the fatal damage caused to the internal organs of an un-belted driver involved in an accident, it is more horrific than any movie Quentin Tarantino could ever muster up. Be warned.

So, to all those guilty of this inconsiderate action, take a few seconds when you get into a car and simply belt-up.