Police have expressed mounting concern about seatbelt non-compliance as authorities record a concerning spike in motorists failing to buckle up.
Settbelts are one of the most fundamental car safety measures, pivotal in preventing deaths and serious injuries in a crash, yet a shocking number of Victorians are flouting the road law.
Wellington Local Area Commander Inspector Mel McLennan says this alarming new trend of increasing seatbelt non-compliance is contributing to serious injury collisions police are experiencing in the area.
“The incidents of failing to wear seatbelts is becoming more prevalent in fatal and serious injury collisions right across the eastern region within Victoria Police, particularly in the regional, rural areas,” Inspector McLennan said.
“We’ve had a 33 per cent increase in seatbelt offences in our injury statistics from the start of the year, that is, seatbelts are not being worn, people are not complying with the law.”
It’s been more than 50 years since Australia became the first country in the world to introduce compulsory wearing of seat belts, with Victoria leading the way, legislating the mandate in December 1970.
Within 14 months, the rest of Australia followed.
The legislation’s implementation corresponded with significant and noticeable declines in driver and passenger death and injury rates.
In 1970, Australia’s worst road toll year on record, 3,798 people lost their lives.
In 1980, 10 years after seatbelt use became mandatory, the road toll had dropped to 3,272.
Road fatalities continued to reduce progressively, and by 2010, Australia’s road toll had more than halved – 1,353 deaths – with annual national road fatalities having remained largely flat in the last decade.
While the road toll remains significantly lower than in 1970, a spike in this year’s road fatalities has coincided with increasing seatbelt non-compliance.
Two hundred thirty-seven people have died on Victorian roads so far this year, a 15.7 per cent increase from 2022, with rural and regional road fatalities accounting for more than half of all deaths.
There have been three deaths on Wellington Shire roads.
Local authorities are both frightened and perplexed by the increasing incidence of seatbelt non-compliance.
“In today’s modern era of the modern car, it actually takes a lot more to not put your seatbelt on with all of the safety systems and alerts that are in the cars, so we just don’t quite understand why people are bypassing the safety systems when the simplest thing you can do is to put your seatbelt on to potentially save your life or prevent serious injury,” Inspector McLennan said.
“It’s outrageous, and we don’t understand.
“It seems to be a trend that we are noticing, and we just do not understand it.”
Police in the Wellington Shire have reported an increase in serious injury collision statistics that indicate seatbelts not being worn are a contributing factor to serious injury.
“Potentially, some of those injuries would have been substantially less serious had seatbelts been worn or potentially been no injury collisions,” Inspector McLennan said.
“That is the reality of putting your seatbelt on; that is the reality of not making the choice not to put your seatbelt on.
“We’re not immune; no one is immune from the potential to have a collision on our roads, so the simplest thing and the safest thing you can do is to put your seatbelt on and make sure all of the passengers in your car have got their seatbelts on.”
In the past five years, more than 130 people have died on Victorian roads while not wearing a seatbelt, according to data from the Transport Accident Commission (TAC).
Sixty-five per cent of deaths occurred in regional Victoria, with Gippsland accounting for 27 per cent of people killed who were not wearing seatbelts.
So far this year, about 25 per cent of vehicle occupants who died in a crash on Victorian roads were not wearing a seatbelt.
Transport Accident Commission chief executive Tracey Slatter said it has been a devastating year on our roads.
“Wearing a seatbelt is one of the simplest and most effective layers of protection we have, and while we know most people wear them all the time, there is a small number of people who aren’t buckling up,” she said.
“We need all Victorians to take road safety seriously; talk to your loved ones about their actions and ensure they’re buckled up every time they get in a car – it can be the difference between life and death.”
While the alarming trend of not wearing seatbelts is particularly prominent in Victoria and New South Wales, an increasing failure to buckle up extends to all Australian states.
Just last month, four children were among a family of six who died in a horrific road crash in the Northern Territory. The four young girls, aged between one and nine years old, were reported to have not been wearing seatbelts.
The tragedy marks the Northern Territory’s worst road disaster in more than 15 years and the worst crash involving multiple children in at least three decades.
In the same week, a 16-year-old boy was killed, and five others injured in a collision in Sydney’s northern beaches.
Six teenage boys, aged between 16 and 17, were taken to hospital after their Toyota Hilux left the road and collided with a tree on Cabbage Tree Road, Bayview, shortly after midnight on October 7.
The 17-year-old driver was airlifted to Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in a critical but stable condition, while the passengers were taken to Royal North Shore Hospital, where the 16-year-old front-seat passenger later died from his injuries.
The driver was arrested at a home in Bayview on Thursday, October 26 and has been charged with 10 offences, including dangerous driving occasioning death, dangerous driving occasioning grievous bodily harm and driving with passengers not wearing seatbelts.
The penalty in Victoria for not wearing a seatbelt is a minimum fine of $385 and three demerit points.
“Drivers and persons over the age of 16 that are not wearing a seatbelt are liable to a penalty of $385, and the driver receives three demerit points,” Inspector McLennan said.
“So regardless of whether it is the driver who has not got their seatbelt on or one of the passengers who has not got a seatbelt on, the driver is the one who incurs the demerit points.”
Death, permanent impairment, life-altering injuries: these are the risks when the simple safety measure of wearing a seatbelt is flouted.
A police officer for almost 20 years, Inspector McLennan, knows the rippling extent of the lifelong consequences all too well.
“It can impact so many people’s lives,” she said.
“By making a silly split-second decision, potentially destroy your life, destroy the life of someone else, certainly will alter the course of your life, for the rest of your life.”
For those lucky enough to survive serious car crashes, physical injury is not the only wound that needs healing.
Beyond the immediate trauma, these accidents leave lasting imprints as those impacted grapple with enduring physical and psychological repercussions.
Alan Harris was lucky to survive after his car crashed into a tree off the Princes Highway in 2012.
The then 22-year-old Sale resident suffered a crushed portion of his large intestine that was surgically removed, three burst blood vessels, fragments of the car through his knee, bruised kidney, spleen and liver.
Mr Harris also died and was revived during his month-long hospitalisation.
“I was a pretty careless driver prior to my accident. I didn’t care about regular car services if my tires were bald or not, and at the time, the Honda Civic I was using had a broken seatbelt, and I didn’t mind at all,” Mr Harris said.
“Luckily, my girlfriend and her sister at the time took that car to university that day as I’d parked behind the other car, which was a much safer and newer Mitsubishi Colt. For some reason, I got in the car and popped a seatbelt that morning; it was wet and raining.
“Twenty minutes later, I lost control of the car and crashed head-first into a tree at 100kph. If it wasn’t for me wearing a seatbelt, I’d be dead for sure.”
Mr Harris said the accident was “life-changing”.
“It wasn’t until after my second surgery that the full gravity of how lucky I am took full effect. In fact, I was incredibly blasé about the whole situation from the second I crashed,” he said.
“I unbuckled my seatbelt, crawled out of the car and lay on the ground. Even though I was in immense pain, I joked with the paramedics about slipping me some morphine, joked to the nurses that my swelling and bruising were just because I was fat and told the doctor it was against my religion to receive surgery, which wasn’t received well at all.
“After my first surgery, it seemed everything was fine; I was in a normal hospital room surrounded by my family and having a joke with my sister, with normal hospital stuff connected to my heart and veins, etc.
“I don’t remember the next part, but midway through replying to my sister, my eyes rolled back, I passed out and flatlined.”
Mr Harris was rushed back into surgery, waking up strapped to a bed in the ICU the following day with tubes protruding from his neck, arms, stomach, nose and throat.
“After I was released from the hospital a month later, I think we went 70 on the road back to Sale from Traralgon, and it was terrifying,” Mr Harris said.
“Two days later, my cousin called me to tell me that our mate crashed his car on his way home one day; he rolled the car and wasn’t wearing a seatbelt. He died instantly.
“I think it was that moment, one month after my accident, that the whole reality of how lucky I am took full effect. While the seatbelt was arguably the cause of my injured organs, it’s 100 per cent the reason I’m still alive today.”
Central Gippsland Health director of medical services, Dr Divyanshu Dua, said one of every three motor vehicle accident injuries has a serious risk of significant physical and mental conditions.
“The general cause of death in a motor vehicle accident is being thrown out of the vehicle during a collision,” he said.
“Passengers who experience this are five times more likely to die than those who remain in the vehicle.
“Other significant causes of many severe injuries include secondary impacts of the passenger’s body with objects within the vehicle including the dashboard, doors, steering wheel. These impacts can be avoided by wearing a seatbelt.”
Central Gippsland Health recently treated a man involved in a motor vehicle accident who was not wearing a seatbelt.
“A male in his 40s was a front seat passenger in a car travelling at 80 km/h. The car collided with a tree, and he was brought in via ambulance to the CGH Emergency Department. He was not wearing a seatbelt at the time of the accident,” Dr Dua said.
“He sustained life-threatening injuries to many of his internal organs and broke several bones. He underwent emergency surgery, including the removal of his spleen, a gastrojejunostomy and a transverse colonic resection, which required him to be fitted with an ostomy bag.
“He was discharged from hospital after four weeks with ongoing surgical follow-up, rehabilitation, and other community stoma supports.”
Professionals within the health care system share police concerns about the rising number of motorists and passengers failing to wear seatbelts with paramedics, doctors and nurses, like police, exposed to the impacts of road trauma.
“As paramedics, we regularly see the devastating results of road trauma,” Ambulance Victoria Gippsland Acting Regional Director Paul James said.
“These accidents don’t just affect those who are injured, but also their friends and family, along with the first responders who attend.
“Wearing a correctly adjusted seat belt is one of the simplest ways to reduce the risk of serious injury or death.”
Police are currently targeting speed, driving under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol and seatbelt offences in the Wellington Shire.
