ABU DHABI // If you don’t want to wear a seat belt in the back of a car, it is your choice – but there are the devastating consequences.
That is the hard-hitting new message from road-safety campaigners, who admit that just telling people they are wrong not to use a seat belt does not work.
Buckle Up in the Back's latest campaign illustrates the reality of life in a wheelchair, living with epilepsy and the daily struggle of a colostomy-bag user – all consequences of road accidents that could have been avoided if the victim had been wearing a seat belt.
“We decided to accept the fact that people are ignoring public-health messages and give advice on how to deal with the day-to-day consequences of life without seat belts,” said Neil Harrison, the creative director of gyro: Dubai, the agency that created the campaign.
The ads, with the tagline “If you don’t wear a seat belt you’re going to need all the help you can get”, now appear in taxis and hire cars.
“I’m delighted with the new focus and think it will go a long way to getting people to using a seat belt,” said Lesley Cully, a safety campaigner who set up the non-profit Buckle Up in the Back campaign in May 2010.
Thomas Edelmann, the founder of the Road Safety UAE website, said: “Any campaign that raises education and awareness for wearing seat belts is highly commendable.
“Seat belts are the most effective tool to prevent injuries and fatalities in the event of an accident.
“There are different ways to create this awareness and talking about the consequences is definitely a very good way.”
About 800 of 1,000 people surveyed for a YouGov poll last year admitted they never or rarely wore a seat belt in the back of a car.
Nearly 400 said they ignored them because they believed the back of a car was safer, and 350 because belts were uncomfortable.
If rear seat belts were required to be used by law, 400 people said they would be likely to buckle up, and if fines were doubled 370 would do so. If seat belts were more comfortable, 380 people said they would be “very likely” to wear them.
Anyone found not wearing a seat belt in the front seat of a car faces a Dh400 fine, and four black points for drivers. There is no law requiring back-seat passengers to wear seat belts.
“As we found through research, only laws and fines will deter this,” said Mr Harrison. “The next step would be to introduce laws.”
In January, Abdullilah Zineddin, a road-safety expert, said he wanted to see more emphasis on seat belts for all passengers, as well as compulsory child restraints.
“I noticed most people wear seat belts when they’re sitting in front but I still don’t see too many people who wear seat belts when they’re travelling in the rear of a car,” he said.
Mr Edelmann said the buckling-up culture in the UAE “is definitely not where it should be”.
“This means that very often not even the driver and passenger in the front are buckled up,” he said. “The same is true to an even greater extent for back-seat passengers.”
rruiz@thenational.ae