September 2006

Families and victims of road accidents back new car seat belt laws

A father whose son was killed in a road accident because he wasn't wearing his seat belt and a girl, whose life was saved because she belted up, are backing new laws tightening the use of safety belts and child car seats.

Keith Houliston and Michelle Wheatley are backing the Local Authority Road Safety Officers' Association (LARSOA) in their bid to raise awareness of the change in the law on seat belts on September 18 th .

Keith's son, Neil, was just 17 when he was killed in a collision on Christmas Day. He was driving home to Thorpe Willoughby in North Yorkshire after giving his sister, Gillian, a lift to work when he took a bend too quickly and collided head on with another car. Neil was killed instantly.

"At his inquest the coroner went as far as to say that if he had been wearing his seat belt he probably wouldn't have sustained nothing worse than whiplash injuries," explains Keith.

Michelle Wheatley, now 20, crashed her car into a tree next to a 40 foot drop into a quarry on the A162 Brotherton to Burton Salmon road in the same county. There is no doubt in her mind or the emergency services who rescued her that her life was saved because she was wearing a seat belt.

Michelle suffered severe head injuries and spent a total of three months in hospital and a neurological rehabilitation with her family and boyfriend, footballer Byron Webster who plays for York City, supporting her.

"I can't remember the accident. The police believe I swerved to avoid an animal and lost control of the car. The fire service had to fasten the car to the fire engine to stop it going over the edge of the quarry then cut off the back of the car to slide me out. I was a mess. I had fractured my forehead, the top of my head and the base of my skull, broken my eye sockets and my nose and jaw were both broken."

It took Michelle six months to recover but she has been left permanently deaf in her right ear and suffers with headaches. It also destroyed her dream to join the police."

Both Michelle and Keith are keen to promote the importance of wearing seat belts and welcome the new laws which tighten the regulations governing wearing seat belts and using child car seats.

The new law means that until a child reaches 135cms in height (approximately 4ft 5ins), they must continue to use a child car seat or booster.

LARSOA Chairman, Simon Ettinghausen, explains: "As well as children being properly restrained, it's important to emphasise the importance of wearing a seat belt in the rear of a vehicle. While people do know they should wear a seat belt in the front seat, many don't realise how dangerous it is not to wear one in the back.

"In a crash at 30mph you will hit the front seat and anyone in it with of force between 30 and 60 times your own body weight. This could result in death or serious injury to you and the person in the front."

While Michelle is living testimony of the importance of belting up, Keith and his family are left with only pictures of Neil. "It's such a waste of life," he concludes.

Further detailed information can be found on the Department for Transport Think! Website at www.thinkroadsafety.gov.uk .

Pictures of Neil, Keith and Michelle are available. For further information or more details about these case studies please contact Alison Ferst at DTW on 01287 610404 or 07779 435794.

ABOUT LARSOA

• LARSOA is a national road safety organisation representing road safety officers (RSOs) employed in local government across the UK.

• LARSOA represents 185 of the 200 eligible local authorities across the UK, assisting RSOs to fulfil their statutory role to reduce the number and severity of road casualties through education, training and publicity programmes.

• LARSOA publishes an up-to-date round-up of road safety news from across the UK on its website www.larsoa.org.uk .

• LARSOA also aims to influence national debate - government policy and action together with public opinion. The association works to achieve national recognition for road safety issues, commissions research into behaviour which contributes to road collisions and develops national road safety campaigns.

• The association assists in identifying achievable national targets to reduce the number of collisions on the country's roads.