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Auto, Truck & Motor Vehicle Accidents
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Claims Involving Children
Seat Belt Usage Declines as Night Wears On
Car crashes continue to be the leading cause of death for United States teens. Followed by homicide, suicide, and unintentional injuries; motor vehicle accidents account for 30% of all teenaged deaths annually.
In an effort to prevent these deaths, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recently studied seat belt usage in teens. What they found is startling. In traffic fatalities for young passengers 16-20, 55% of the riders were unrestrained. That number only gets higher as the night wears on. Between midnight and 3 a.m., over 70% of the fatalities involved passengers who were not wearing a seat belt.
The numbers don’t change much as we get older. In the 21-24 age group, 68% of the fatalities were without seatbelts and in the 25-34 year old age group 69% of the passengers were unbelted. These figures don’t necessarily mean that the same proportion of drivers are not wearing their seatbelts across the age figures, but it does mean that you have about the same percentage chance of surviving a crash with a seat belt on.
Some studies have found that your chances of survival are more than four times as great if you are wearing a seat belt than if you are not.
Florida seat belt law requires that all drivers and front seat passengers wear a seat belt. But only 59% of people questioned in a recent survey reported that they regularly wore their seat belts when they rode in the driver or front passenger seat. And that translates to more deaths on Florida highways.
In 68% of the nighttime traffic fatalities, the Florida driver or passenger involved was not wearing his seat belt. During the daytime, there was about a 50/50 split – with 49% of the victims of car crashes wearing their seat belt. This means that as the night goes on Florida drivers are – for whatever reason – less and less likely to wear their seatbelts. The study accounted for the data of the 1,947 drivers who died on Florida’s roads or highways last year.
Lilly, O'Toole & Brown, LLP
Lakeland Office: (863) 683-1111
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Also providing legal assistance to clients from:
Wauchula, Lake Placid, Avon Park, Plant City, Brandon, and Valrico, Florida.
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Lakeland Office
800 S. Florida Ave.
Lakeland, FL 33801
Phone: (863) 683-1111
Fax: (863) 683-0915
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2154 Lakeview Drive
Sebring, FL 33870
Phone: (863) 471-0003
Fax: (863) 471-2034
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310 E. Main Street
Bartow, FL 33830
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815 S.R. 60 East
Lake Wales, FL 33853
Phone: (863) 676-1991
Fax: (863) 676-3873
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70 Fourth Street N.W.
Winter Haven, FL 33881
Phone: (863) 294-8100
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