Car drivers wearing seatbelts are five times more likely to die in a crash if their back-seat passengers are unrestrained, say Japanese researchers.
Masao Ichikawa of the University of Tokyo and colleagues analysed data on about 100,000 car crashes between 1995 and 1999 in Japan, where rear seatbelt use is not compulsory. They looked at crashes involving cars in which the driver was wearing a seatbelt, had at least two rear-seat passengers and where all the occupants were injured.
During an impact, rear-seat passengers can be thrown forwards with great force and cause severe injuries to those in the front. The researchers concluded that the number of deaths in the studied accidents could have been reduced by 79.2 per cent, if the rear seat passengers had also used belts. Overall, deaths and severe injuries could be reduced by nearly a half.
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鈥淥ur findings provide a basis for making rear seatbelt use compulsory,鈥� says Ichikawa. 鈥淢ost deaths and severe injuries of front-seat occupants of cars would potentially be averted by rear seatbelt use.鈥�
Breaking the law
In the UK, it has been illegal to not use a rear seatbelt since 1991. But a survey conducted in 1999 found that six out of 10 British adults routinely break this law.
鈥淎lthough you cannot directly compare figures from Japan and the UK, the end result is the same: if you don鈥檛 belt up in the back, you kill people,鈥� says Roger Vincent of the UK鈥檚 Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents. 鈥淭his study re-emphasises the dangers of not wearing rear seatbelts.鈥�
Vincent thinks legislation can go only so far. Advertisements warning of the dangers are important, and car manufacturers should be encouraged to improve rear seatbelt design, he says.
鈥淪ome people do find rear seatbelts fiddly,鈥� he says. 鈥淪ome also feel confined in the back while they鈥檙e belted in.鈥�
Journal reference: The Lancet (vol 359, p 43)