There is no excuse for not wearing your seatbelt while in a vehicle, and police officers have pretty much heard them all.
SGI’s traffic safety spotlight this month is seatbelt use, and Sgt. Dallyn Holmstrom of the Carlyle RCMP, has compiled a top ten list of excuses he’s heard from drivers who failed to buckle up. The number one excuse he says – drivers who say they are only driving a short distance.
“I’m only going a couple blocks, or just driving to the grocery store or the post office. Wherever they are running. People figure they can’t get hurt if they’re only a block from their house.
SGI spokesperson, Tyler McMurchy points out that in most cases the majority of our time spent driving happens close to home, and by extension that is where a high number of collisions happen.
Sgt. Holmstrom’s list of poor excuses for not wearing a seatbelt includes:
- “I’m a careful driver. I don’t need a seat belt.”
- “Wearing a seat belt makes me feel restrained.”
- “Seat belts are uncomfortable.”
- “I forget to buckle up sometimes.”
- “I’m too big to wear a seat belt.”
- “I’m not travelling very far or very fast.”
- “I want to be able to exit the car quickly.”
- “I don’t want to get stuck inside the car during a crash.”
- “Seatbelts cause injuries during crashes.”
- “I’m driving a bigger vehicle that will protect me in case of a crash.”
Seatbelts have been the law in Saskatchewan since July of 1977, but police still see a number of crashes where seatbelts were not worn.
McMurchy says if you do get caught without a seatbelt, no excuse will get you out of a ticket. What’s more concerning he says – are the people who don’t get caught,
“more concerning than the people who are getting tickets for lack of seatbelt use are the people who don’t get a ticket because they died as a result of a collision in which they were not buckled”
During last year’s traffic safety spotlights, police reported more than 5,200 tickets handed out for not wearing a seatbelt.
