This part of the manual tells you how to use safety belts properly. It also tells you some things you should not do with safety belts.

Caution: Do not let anyone ride where he or she cannot wear a safety belt properly. If you are in a crash and you are not wearing a safety belt, your injuries can be much worse. You can hit things inside the vehicle or be ejected from it. You can be seriously injured or killed. In the same crash, you might not be, if you are buckled up. Always fasten your safety belt, and check that your passengers' belts are fastened properly too.

Caution: It is extremely dangerous to ride in a cargo area, inside or outside of a vehicle. In a collision, people riding in these areas are more likely to be seriously injured or killed. Do not allow people to ride in any area of your vehicle that is not equipped with seats and safety belts. Be sure everyone in your vehicle is in a seat and using a safety belt properly.

Your vehicle has a light that comes on as a reminder to buckle up. See Safety Belt Reminder Light .

In most states and all Canadian provinces, the law says to wear safety belts. Here's why: They work .

You never know if you'll be in a crash. If you do have a crash, you don't know if it will be a bad one.

A few crashes are mild, and some crashes can be so serious that even buckled up a person would not survive. But most crashes are in between. In many of them, people who buckle up can survive and sometimes walk away. Without belts they could have been badly hurt or killed.

After more than 30 years of safety belts in vehicles, the facts are clear. In most crashes buckling up does matter ... a lot!

Question:

Aren't safety belts for kids?

Answer:

Yes. And they are for adult truckers, and anyone else who rides in your vehicle.

Here's why: when your vehicle goes, say, 30 mph (50 km/h), so do you and your passengers.

If the vehicle hits something, it stops - right then. But nothing stops the people. They keep moving.

Then something will stop them. It could be the windshield.

Or it could be the instrument panel.

Now, what if you and your passengers were to give that big vehicle a chance to deal with the force of the impact, instead of you?

With belts, you slow down as the vehicle does. You get more time to stop.

You stop over more distance, and your strongest bones take the forces. Safety belts are for everyone.