Seat belt wearing is one of three promotional themes for ROSPA, Drink Driving and Driver Distraction are the other two.

The three posters can also be seen on the website.

The decision of ROSPA to focus on the Seat Belt Promotion Campaign was the 2022 ‘Road Trauma Report 2021 statistical summary’ released on 26 May this year, by the Federal Department of Environment, Transport and Rural Development (BITRE) *.

It reported that 154 of 723 (21.3%) of vehicle occupant fatalities in Australia in 2021 had ‘NOT USED A SAFETY DEVICE’ (see attached Table 1.12).

The value of seat belts was demonstrated last Wednesday with the crash of a B-double truck into the rear of a coach at 3 am near Bacchus Marsh.

27 year 9 to 11 students, four teachers, and the driver from Ballarat were in the coach when it rolled 2 meters down an embankment.

Two teenage girls being flown to the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne and the driver also to Melbourne with others to the Ballarat Hospital.

Ambulance Victoria reported that 30 people were treated with ‘traumatic’ injuries. +

*https://www.bitre.gov.au/publications/ongoing/road_deaths_australia_annual-summaries

+’Herald Sun’ page 13, 22 September 2022.