Consider just a few facts collected by Bilkent's Traffic Committee:

• An unbelted occupant in a 50 km per hour car crash will hit the windshield or other interior surface of the car with the same impact as if falling from a three-story building.
• People who failed to buckle up have been killed in car crashes at speeds as low as 19 km per hour.
• Wearing a seat belt would have saved the lives of more than half the car passengers killed in crashes each year.
• The effectiveness of an air bag system drops 40 percent when a seat belt isn't used.
• Manual lap and shoulder belts reduce car accident deaths 40-50 percent and moderate to critical injuries 45-55 percent.
• 80 percent of serious and fatal injuries occur in cars traveling less than 65 km per hour, so wear your seat belt for city and highway travel.
• A person is about 25 times more likely to be fatally injured if ejected from the vehicle during a crash.
• 75 percent of serious and fatal traffic injuries occur less than 40 km from home, so wear your seat belt on long and short trips. Seat belts save lives, but only if they are used.