Don Roach: No Significant Need To Wear Your Seat Belt
Wednesday, May 29, 2013
And, I’m back. After taking a couple of weeks off, I figured I’d hopefully add some levity to our somewhat depressing news/opinion cycle of the last few weeks. At least, it’s my intention that what I’m about to discuss with you, you’ll find as head scratching as I do.
By now, if you’ve driven on I-95 you have seen a sign that says “49 vehicle deaths in RI last year 51% unbuckled”. Let me restate what the signs says a few ways with my own emphasis.
49 vehicle deaths in RI last year
51% unbuckled
49 vehicle deaths in RI last year
49% buckled
49 vehicle deaths in RI last year
25 unbuckled
49 vehicle deaths in RI last year
24 unbuckled
What’s consistent? We’ve had 49 vehicle deaths during the past year in Rhode Island. What changes? The percentages and number of deaths. Essentially the state is telling us that in 51% of the vehicle related deaths, the people who died were not wearing their seatbelts. That means 25 people died while not wearing their seatbelt.
We can’t infer that they died because they did wear their seatbelt based on what the sign is telling us. We can only state that they weren’t wearing their seatbelts and they also died as part of some vehicle incident.
However, it’s pretty safe to assume that whomever approved this sign is trying to encourage people to wear their seatbelts because wearing one’s seatbelt is safer than not wearing a seatbelt, right?
Well according to this sign, wearing your seatbelt is only marginally safer than not wearing a seatbelt. Sure 25 people died and weren’t wearing their seatbelt but the converse of ‘unbuckled’ is...you guessed it…‘buckled’. I work in accounting but it does not take an account to take 51 percent x 49 vehicle related deaths to come up 25. And it certainly doesn’t take a CFO of a Fortune 500 company to take (1 – 51 percent [read: 49 percent]) x 49 vehicle related deaths to come up with 24.
So the sign, and by extension the state, is touting that wearing your seatbelt gives you a 1 percent greater chance of survival than not wearing your seatbelt?
I’ll repeat that just in case it didn’t sink in – a government approved sign that hundreds, if not thousands, see every day is touting that there is only a 1 percent benefit to wearing a seatbelt.
Seriously? Is there our tax dollars are going? Is this teaching teenage drivers (who are a lot smarter today than when you and I were kids) to wear their seatbelts? Of course it isn’t.
This sign needs to go. I’m glad that whatever government agency put this sign up is reporting the numbers to the populace but they need to think of the message they are sending. “Hey kids, go ahead and don’t wear a seatbelt because you’re only 1 percent more likely to die in an accident if you don’t wear it.”
Yes, this is a head scratcher. For your benefit, I’ve attached a picture of the sign below.
Don wears his seatbelt everyday but is reconsidering after reading this sign. Don can be reached at [email protected].
Related Articles
- Don Roach: Is The Master Lever So Bad?
- Don Roach: North Korea’s Napoleon Complex
- Don Roach: What Happened to the Occupy Movement?
- Don Roach: America’s Most Wanted Man Finds No Rest In Death
- Don Roach: RI Sales Tax Needs to go
- Don Roach: NECAP and Gist
