In The News

Seatbelt still most important safety feature

Using a seat belt doubles a trucker’s chances of survival in a serious accident, yet, a recent report says, less than half of truck drivers choose to click-it.

The study was conducted by Sweden’s NTF road safety organization of more than 700 truckers and interviews with more than half of them between 2011 and 2013 found truck drivers use their seat belts when driving a personal car but not in their trucks.

Reasons given included inconvenient and “time consuming to put on and take off the belt,” a recent news release on the report by Volvo Trucks stated.

“Bearing in mind that the safety belt can spell the difference between life and death, these are not particularly credible excuses,” said Carl Johan Almqvist, traffic and product safety director, Volvo Trucks.

He said despite considerable investment in accident-prevention systems it will never be possibly to eliminate the risk of accidents as long as the human factor plays such a large role.

“The simplest measure of all is naturally to use the single most important safety feature onboard, the safety belt.”

The Trucker staff can be reached to comment on this article at [email protected].

www.theTrucker.com