Year 4 Seatbelt Safety Presentation by Rozalind Symonds
Year 4 have taken part in a seat belt safety presentation this term. We all learned how important it was to wear seatbelts – no matter how short the distance we travel is.
Ms Symonds demonstrated the effects of a car crash using a specially designed ramp and a large model car with bean bag people. The ramp was designed to show the effects of a car crash at 30mph. The model car was equipped with seatbelts and there was also a bean-bag family.
Ms Symonds first asked, and then showed us what the effect of not wearing seatbelt would be on the beanbag family. The mother went through the car window, the father was crumpled under the steering wheel and the child travelled from their seat in the back to land crumpled up in the front of the car with their head on the gear box. We discussed the possible extent of each family injuries and agreed they were most likely to be fatal.
Ms Symonds then demonstrated the same crash but this time the family were wearing seatbelts. We found the family remained in their seats and the probable outcome of the crash would have been no more than whiplash.
We then discussed when children should be able to sit in adult seats without boosters. Ms Symonds told us that although the height of a child by law is 135cm before they can sit in an adult seat in the U.K. it was advisable that all children remained in a booster seat until they were 150cm tall due to the nature of the adult seatbelts.
