A minister’s plea: seatbelts save lives, but only | Australian Markets

Today marks 200 days into the 12 months, and already more than 200 lives have been misplaced on NSW roads. That’s more than one death a day and as your Roads Minister, that statistic haunts me.

Every one of these people was somebody’s little one, dad or mum, sibling or buddy. They left for work, college, or to see family members, and by no means made it home. Their households at the moment are residing a nightmare no one ought to face.

As Minister, street security is my high precedence, but saving lives will take all of us working collectively.

In 2024, 34 people who died on our roads weren’t carrying a seatbelt. So far this 12 months, one other 11 people have died for a similar motive. Over 5 years, 163 people have misplaced their life, with 85 per cent of these deaths in regional NSW.

Last 12 months, the Minns Labor Government expanded cell phone detection cameras to incorporate seatbelt offences.

Since then, over 140 million automobiles have been checked, and seatbelt compliance has improved by 60 per cent. In July 2024, one in each 735 drivers was fined. By June this 12 months, it was down to 1 in each 1,712.

Most importantly, we’re seeing fewer seatbelt associated deaths in 2025. That’s progress. Compliance is working.

But there’s more work to do. Of the 125,000 infringements issued, 88 per cent have been for incorrectly worn seatbelts.

Let me be clear: carrying a seatbelt incorrectly might be almost as harmful as not carrying one in any respect. It places your life at risk and might trigger important and lifelong accidents. It places different lives at risk. It’s a silly gamble.

A seatbelt should sit low and flat throughout your hips, and the sash should cross the center of your chest and shoulder, not beneath your arm, not twisted, not behind your back. These aren’t simply bureaucratic pointers, they will imply the distinction between strolling away from a crash, dying or experiencing lifelong trauma.

Our Centre for Road Safety’s CrashLab testing exhibits an incorrectly worn seatbelt in a crash at simply 60km/h may cause deadly accidents to the liver, spleen or stomach.

The Minns Government will all the time invest in street security and this 12 months’s Budget noticed $2.8 billion put towards street security over the following 4 years. But no quantity of infrastructure can change personal duty.

We’ve come a long manner since 1971 when NSW turned one of the primary jurisdictions to mandate seatbelts.

But too many people nonetheless aren’t carrying them correctly and too many households are paying the price.

Seatbelts save lives, but only in the event that they’re worn accurately and I make no apologies for doing all the things we will to keep NSW street customers alive. Road trauma is totally preventable and never inevitable.

Buckle up correctly, and let’s work collectively so no more households need to lose a liked one on our roads.

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