More than half of the people involved in fatal road accidents did not wear seatbelts

MORE than half of the drivers and people involved in fatal accidents on Balearic roads this year were not wearing seatbelts or in the case of motorbikes, crash helmets. A total of 51.7 percent of those involved in road accidents were not wearing the necessary safety items this year. Traffic police say that some drivers are still not strapping their children into their safety harnesses. As a result, the police have started a campaign to target drivers, riders and passengers who are not wearing seatbelts and helmets.
This campaign is now underway and will end at the end of this month.
Of those who died in road accidents a total of 42 out of 87 people were not using the necessary safety elements at the time of the accident.
This figure is well above the Spanish average, where a little over a third of those who died in road accidents were not wearing their seatbelt or crash helmet. The aim of the current campaign, which will be carried out by the Guardia Civil and local police officers, is to reduce this high statistic, and make people more aware about the need to wear seatbelts, helmets and child harnesses. So far this year a total of 87 people have died in road accidents in the Balearics and 48.2 percent of these were under 30 years old (42 people and 2 more than last year). But in global figures 18 percent fewer people have died on the roads if compared to the same time period in 2004. This time last year 103 people had died on Balearic roads, confirmed information from the Traffic Police. A total of 72 percent of those who died this year in road accidents, were men (63 people), whilst the remaining 28 percent were women (24 people).
Furthermore, 63 percent of those who died were drivers (56), whilst 18 people were passengers, 12 pedestrians and one cyclist.
CAMPAIGN
From this total figure, 27.7 percent were foreigners (24 people, of which 16 were from the European Union and 8 from outside the EU).
This campaign has also been unleashed throughout Spain, and will mean that at least 200'000 drivers and bikers will be controlled and assessed for seatbelts and helmets on the roads this month. There will also be advertisments made on the main television stations for this safety awareness campaign, as well as on the radion stations and in the main Spanish newspapers.