One of the wisest life choices you can make is choosing to use your seat belt whether as driver or passenger each and every time you are in a vehicle.

Nearly 92 percent of us do just that every day, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Americans at the rates of 91.9 percent buckled up nationally in 2023.

For the nearly 10 percent who choose not to use a seat belt, the consequences could be, and often were, deadly.

In 2021, 26,325 passenger vehicle occupants were killed, and about 50 percent of those — based on known seat belt use — were not buckled. In some of the most recent data available, in 2017 seat belts saved an estimated 14,955 lives — and could have saved an additional 2,549 had they been used.

Sadly, we’ve seen in North and Central Alabama, including Limestone, Cullman and St. Clair counties, the fatal results of those who chose not to wear a seat belt — up to and including this past week when a multi-vehicle accident claimed the life of a local man.

Simply, the consequences of not wearing, or improperly wearing, a seat belt are serious and grave. They are also clear:

– Buckling up helps keep you safe and secure inside your vehicle, whereas not buckling up can result in being totally ejected from the vehicle in a crash, which is almost always deadly.

– Air bags are not enough to protect you; in fact, the force of an air bag can seriously injure or even kill you if you’re not buckled up.

– Improperly wearing a seat belt, such as putting the strap below your arm, puts you and your children at risk in a crash.

But the benefits of buckling up are also clear:

– If you buckle up in the front seat of a passenger car, you can reduce your risk of fatal injury by 45% and moderate to critical injury by 50%.

– If you buckle up in a light truck, you can reduce your risk of fatal injury by 60 percent and moderate to critical injury by 65%.

Because of these statistics, the NHTSA provides guidelines to buckling up safely:

– The lap belt and shoulder belt are secured across the pelvis and rib cage, which are better able to withstand crash forces than other parts of your body.

– Place the shoulder belt across the middle of your chest and away from your neck.

– The lap belt rests across your hips, not your stomach.

– Never put the shoulder belt behind your back or under an arm.

For more information, including about seat belt use for children and those who are pregnant, visit nhtsa.gov.

There are many myths about seat belt use safety, and the NHTSA even debunks a few of them on its website.

But the reality is that buckling up is the single most effective thing you can do to protect yourself in a crash.

And in Alabama, it’s the law, as information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states: Seat belt laws are primary for drivers and front seat passengers and secondary for rear seat passengers. They cover drivers, as well as passengers aged 15 and older in all seats. Child restraint laws require that all children aged 5 and younger be buckled in a car seat or booster seat.