Buckle Up

We all want to travel safely.  Statistics indicate that seat belts save 35 people every day.  So Buckle Up and Travel with this Travel Bug.

Seat belt, safety belt, or seatbelt.  Designed to secure driver and passengers of a vehicle from harm during a collision.

When I was a kid, we were required to wear seatbelts because my parents said so, not because of any laws.  Apparently my parents believed in statistics (that silly math stuff, based on science and measurement...).  Back then, kids could ride in the front seat and did not have to be strapped into a special child seat.  And air bags?  Forget those things, they are always causing factory recalls.  Oh, the freedom we had!

Speaking of statistics, it has been proven that 

• seat belts are highly effective in preventing injuries and saving lives during motor vehicle crashes.
• Seat belts reduce the risk of death by 45% and cut the risk of serious injury by 50%
• People can name around 15 reasons why they don’t use a seatbelt
• Nearly 2,500 US teenagers lost their lives on the road

Some American history (groan, I failed that in high school):

• Late 1800's: George Cayley created seat belts to keep pilots inside their gliders.
• 1885: Edward Claghorn patented seat belts for taxis in New York City
• 1949: Car manufacturer Nash offered seat belts as an option as early as 1949.  American drivers did not want to buy those cars.
• 1960s: According to the Henry Ford Museum, "When seat belts became standard equipment in the 1960s, most people refused to use them."
• 1965: consumer advocate Ralph Nader wrote a book called Unsafe at Any Speed: The Designed-In Dangers of the American Automobile.  He concluded that car makers were reluctant to add safety features, such as seat belts.
• 1968: Seat belts became required in all American vehicles.
• 1995: Every state (except New Hampshire) had "Click it or ticket" laws.

If this bug (and we are not talking VW) should make it outside of the USA, then perhaps you could learn some other local history.  Such fun is what makes it Geocaching.