Wear Your Seatbelt

Wear Your Seatbelt To Persuade To persuade people that wearing their seat belt is a must when traveling or going somewhere in a vehicle and without it the probabilities of death and severe injury are foreseeable. I. Introduction A. 1.) Wearing a seatbelt is a must when driving in a car. The chances of surviving in any car accident go down by 50% if you do not wear a seat belt. 2.) Don’t wait until after the car crash to wear your seatbelt because it will be too late after the fact because you might not live through it or you can do serious injury to your body to wear you can’t drive any more. B. How many people do you know that have gotten in a car crash? If they lived or they didn’t get any serious injuries they were probably wearing a seat belt! Don’t make the mistake of not wearing one and lose your friends or family to a car crash. C. i. 1.) Wearing a seat belt is the most effective and easiest way to avoid death or serious bodily injury to you and others in the car. As much as 13,000 lives saved each year.” (Seat Belts: Get the Facts. (2014, October 7). 2.) This persuasive essay will be talking about wearing your seatbelt and try to persuade people to wear them every day when they are driving or in the seat of a moving motor vehicle. Also how the simple choices of just wearing your seat belt or not can affect your whole life. II. BODY A. The likelihood of getting in at least one car crash in your life is very possible. The numerical chance of getting in a car crash is 80%. A lot of people think that if they are going somewhere quickly or driving short distances they do not need to bother wearing your seat belt because they will get their quickly and the chances of getting in a car crash is very unlikely. 1.) The problem is that people don’t want to wear their seat belts or they are to lazy to put one on so they just dismiss it and don’t think about it until it is to late or after the fact. a. Most car accidents occur right away within the first 3 miles of home. Driving short distances is when most car accidents occur. b. This happens because people are most distracted when they first get in there cars trying to figure out the station they want to listen to, talking to others in the car, on their phones. ii. Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death among teens in the United States between the ages of 18 to 24 years old iii. 2) According to the CDC motor vehicle website statistical facts from the ages “14 to 20 years old about 55% of the kids that died were not wearing seatbelts. If everybody used a seatbelt everyday around the United States there would be 2. Importance; Wearing your seat belt is very Central. A. This is a countrywide problem. . “Seat belt use in 2010 was 89% in states with primary enforcement laws but only 80% in states with secondary enforcement laws or no seat belt laws.” (Seat Belt Safety, Seat Belt) b. Facts: i. The chances of getting in at least one car crash in your life are very likely. The statistical chance of getting in a car crash is 80%. ii. Studies show, primary enforcement seat belt laws make a big change in getting more people to buckle up. A primary enforcement seat belt law means a police officer can pull a vehicle over and give a ticket just because a driver or passenger covered by the law is not wearing a seat belt. A secondary enforcement law only allows a police officer to issue a ticket for someone not wearing a seat belt if the driver has been pulled over for another reason and the police officer sees that someone in the car is not wearing a seatbelt they can then give them a ticket for that offense as well. Who is affected: Everybody is affected by others not wearing their seatbelt because if your mother or father loses their lives not wearing a seat belt the whole family is affected by it. People lose their lives every single day in car crashes because they are not wearing a seat belt. Fact; if everybody used a seatbelt everyday around the United States there would be as much as 13,000 lives saved each year.” (Seat Belts: Get the Facts. (2014, October 7). B. Solutions: Main Point #2: If people buckled up many lives would be saved. 1. It needs to start with the parents setting a good example for their kids and being a good role model when it comes to driver safety. 2. If the parents do it then the kids will be more likely to do it, and their kids will be more likely to do it etc. 3. Make it a habit/ don be lazy 2. Plan of Action: a. Make it longer for younger kids to get their license b. Make sure people know that wearing a seatbelt means and make sure they know the consequences. c. Penalties need to be higher and the crack down on cops making it a priority to wear a seat belt needs to be shown more. d. Make it a precedence law in all states. C. Main Point #3- It is the law to wear a seatbelt and nothing will save you more in a car than your seatbelt. a. Many people believe that an air bag or the steering wheel is enough to save you but it is not. b. In fact the steering wheel can cause extreme internal bleeding and can cause heart problems and can cause your lungs to explode and organs to bleed if hitting the wheel hard enough in a car accident. c. The air bag is known to kill people as well because it comes out at speeds sometimes as much as 200 mph. d. Air bags and the steering wheel aren’t enough to stop you from being injured and being ejected from a car. DEMAND: A. The appeal to wearing a seatbelt is that some people get scared that they could get trapped in the car during a crash. B. This mostly happens either during the car catching fire or the car being fully submerged in a body of water. C. When the car is under water or the car has caught on fire the seatbelt might be melted or cannot unlock due to the water pressure so they could end up being stuck in the car and dying. i. I was told a story that a young man got in a car crash and hit a tree and he wasn’t wearing his seat belt and he lived. The doctors and police said if he was wearing one that he would have been killed ii. There are some very rare situations like this that happen. Fact: These are very rare situations and almost never or very rarely happen. The fact is that “less than 2% of all car crashes involve a car starting on fire or a car being fully submerged in a body of water.”(Seat Belt Statistics. A. There is more of a chance at living in a car crash without your seat belt than a scenario like this even occurring. B. According to “everyday health article” seatbelts save lives every day because of these 5 things; keeps the occupant in the vehicle inside, restrains the strongest parts of the body, spreads out any force from the collision, helps the body slow down, and protects the brain and spinal cord. (Seat Belts: How They Save Lives). III CONCLUSION A. As you can easily see wearing a seatbelt is something that is very simple that you have to do in your everyday life but can make a huge impact on your life and the life of your family, friends and the people you love. B. So buckle up and don’t take the chance even if it’s a short trip. Nothing is safer and more efficient than wearing your seatbelt when driving in a motor vehicle. It is the law to wear your seatbelt and will increase your chances of living or getting injured in a car crash by more than 50%. C. Don’t be one of the 10- 13,000 people that die in a car crash this year and don’t let your family or friends be one of them taking action before it’s too late and buckle up. D. WEAR YOUR SEATBELT! Buckle up the next time you get in a motor vehicle because the life you save may be your own!!