Seatbelts Save Lives Again | Seattle Car Accident Lawyer

Blog Categories:

Seatbelts and helmets can save your life. How many times have we all heard this? Hundreds, and yet there are still people out there who ride motorcycles without a helmet and who hop in their car and drive down the road without a seatbelt. As a Seattle personal injury attorney I have seen hundreds of injuries that would have been far worse if the person had not been wearing a seatbelt, and hundreds of motorcyclists lives saved because they were wearing a helmet.

Wednesday afternoon a multi-vehicle collision caused a mini-van with four passengers to roll several times down an embankment off of I-5. The mini-van was not the cause of the accident, but was the fourth vehicle struck while driving in the HOV lane. After being hit the driver was unable to re-gain control of the vehicle and swerved to the right, through all lanes of traffic on I-5 and then down the embankment. The family of four included a 54-year-old man, his 48-year-old wife and their two daughters ages 7 and 9. Because all of the passengers were wearing seatbelts and the children were properly restrained no one sustained anything more than a minor injury, although for safety the whole family was transported to Harborview Medical Center.

Helmets can also save lives, and according to Washington State law they must be worn by anyone riding on a motorcycle. But the Washington State Patrol recently released a statement about the differences between legal and illegal helmets for motorcycle riders to remind them that novelty helmets that are not approved by the DOT will not protect your head in a crash. The biggest difference between legal and novelty helmets is the one-inch thick inner liner that is standard on DOT certified helmets. This liner is crucial in a motorcycle accident and could potentially be the difference between minor injuries and death.