It cannot be overstated how important it is to wear a seat belt whenever you are riding in a car. Seat belts are a primary method of protection during an accident. Without a seat belt, you could be ejected from the car and killed. A recent accident to the northeast of Memphis in rural Tennessee illustrates how important seat belt usage is.
A fatal car accident took the lives of three young Tennessee men recently, and Tennessee Highway Patrol troopers believe that seat belts could have saved lives. There are not many details available about the car accident other than a car that was traveling on state Route 76 left the road and went flying down a hill into a tree.
Killed in the accident were a 24-year-old man and two 23-year-old men. According to the accident report, none of the men were wearing their seat belts, and the report notes that wearing the belts could have changed the outcome of the accident.
Now this is where it gets tricky. When grown adults are in a car, is it their responsibility to put their own seat belt on and assume the risk if they choose not to? Does the driver have a responsibility to make sure that everyone in his or her car is buckled up in order to escape liability in an accident such as the one that happened above?
According to Tennessee law, every passenger in a vehicle is required to wear their seat belt. But is it the driver’s responsibility? This is what the families of the dead passengers may want to consider if they are thinking about filing wrongful death lawsuits against the driver’s estate.
Source: News Channel 5, “Three Killed In Single Car Crash In West Tennessee,” Jan. 22, 2013