By Ademola Ilori/Doha


Always wear a seat belt when travelling in the front, or the rear, of a vehicle that has seat belt because you already paid for it and the manufacturer provided it for your safety.  In addition, always make sure that children travel in an appropriate child restraint or wearing a seat belt if they are too big for a child restraint.
Seat belts are designed to retain people in their seats and so prevent or reduce injuries suffered in a crash. They ensure that as little contact is made between the occupant and vehicle interior as possible and significantly reduce the risk of being thrown from a vehicle.
In modern vehicles, seat belts are  designed to work as the key part of wider injury prevention measures and safety systems, such as airbags and head restraints, which will not be as effective in reducing the risk of injury if an occupant is not wearing a seat belt.
In a crash, a person who is not restrained by a seat belt will continue to travel forward or sideways at the speed the vehicle is travelling until something stops them. This could be the steering wheel, dashboard or windscreen. In some crashes, the person may burst through one of the windows and be partially or fully ejected from the vehicle, exposing them to other dangers. They might hit fixed objects or be run over or crushed by their own, or another, vehicle.
In a crash, an unrestrained rear-seat occupant continues to travel forward or sideways until his or her progress is impeded, usually by one of the front seats, b-pillar, c-pillar or other parts of the vehicle.
In a severe crash, the force with which the seat is struck is usually sufficient to cause the seat mountings or seat structure to fail. The front seat belt must then not only restrain the front-seat occupant, but also the failed seat and rear-seat occupant. Seat belt failures have been reported under these circumstances, resulting in both front and rear occupants sustaining severe and sometimes fatal injuries.
Even if the seat belt does not fail, the front passenger is subjected to extremely high crushing forces. Front seat occupants have also been fatally injured in this way.  In certain situations the rear-seat occupant is propelled to have a head on collision with the front-seat occupant.
The four main functions of a seat belt are to:
♦ cause the occupant to decelerate at the same rate as the vehicle in a crash, maximising the distance over which the occupant comes to a stop as if the occupant is part of the vehicle seat,
♦ spread the force of the impact over the stronger parts of the occupant’s body, the pelvis and the chest area,
♦ prevent the occupant colliding with the interior parts of the vehicle and other occupants of the vehicle and
♦ reduce the risk of being ejected from the vehicles.
Never use a single seat belt to restrain more than one person. To do so will risk either one or both of the occupants being seriously injured or killed.  Small children who share a seat belt when they ride on an adult’s lap are at a greater risk. In a crash, the child could be crushed between the seat belt and the adult.
Always ensure seat belts are adjusted firmly. A poorly-adjusted seat belt will allow the occupant to move forward in a crash and increase the risk of head contact with part of the vehicle interior. In moving forward, the occupant will also experience high seat belt loads as the slack is taken up.
In order to wear a seat belt safely, the following points should be adhered to:
♦ the belt should be worn as tight as possible with no slack,
♦ the lap belt should go over the pelvic region, not the stomach,
♦ the diagonal strap should rest over the shoulder, not the neck and
♦ nothing should obstruct the smooth movement of the belt by trapping it.
In most modern vehicles, the height of the top of the seat belt can be adjusted on the B-pillar. If you cannot get the seat belt to fit over you correctly, as described above, you should try adjusting the height.
Injuries can generally be traced back to incorrectly adjusted seat belts. They should  be adjusted so that the lap portion lies across the bony section of the hips and the sash falls across the chest and mid shoulder.
Some belts, where the end anchorages are too high or too far back, can tend to ride up over the front bony parts of the hips. This is unsafe because in a crash it does not protect the abdomen contents or lower spine as well as it should.
Pregnant women should wear a seat belt at all times. The safest place for the unborn child is in the firmly-restrained pouch of the womb. If the mother and womb are left free to impact hard objects inside the car, those blows will be transmitted to the child and severe injury may result.
Similarly, if the unborn child’s mother is injured or killed, the child’s chances of survival will be considerably reduced. The main cause of foetal deaths in car crashes is the death of the mother. The most effective way for pregnant women to wear a seat belt is to put the lap part of the belt as low as possible.
It should be positioned under the abdomen, below the front bony part of the hips and across the upper thighs. This will be well below the midpoint of the womb as the baby gets larger. Breast tenderness caused by the sash part of the belt can usually be avoided by passing the seat belt between the breasts. If this is not the natural line of the sash, a sash guide may be used to improve the comfort of the seat belt.
Seat belts should be regularly checked for damage. Common forms of damage to the seat belt that will reduce its effectiveness in an accident, and also lead to the vehicle failing an annual vehicle inspection:
♦ Fraying or fluffing around the edges of the seat belt,
♦ A cut which causes the fabric to split,
♦ A hole in the seat belt and
♦ damage to the buckle
In an accident, the webbing of a seat belt stretches, which absorbs some of the energy in an impact. This helps prevent any injury from the contact between the seat belt and occupant.
A seat belt that has restrained an occupant in an accident would be more likely to cause an occupant injury if it were involved in another accident, and must always be replaced.
If any forces are applied to a seat belt, which are larger than would be expected during its usual operational life, it may also be worth having it checked to see if the webbing of the belt has been strained.
If in doubt, take your car to a reputable vehicle technician to have the belt inspected by an expert.

♦ Ademola Ilori is traffic safety adviser at the Ministry of Interior.