Dwyer 1

Shealyn Dwyer
Ms. Hamby
UWRT
17 November 2014
Driving With your Seatbelt Fastened
What is a commonly known safety tip that you are aware of when you are driving a car?
I am talking about driving and wearing your seatbelt. Some may consider the seatbelt to be a
nuisance and hate wearing it, but it is for your safety and no matter how far you are driving you
should always wear it. I relate riding in a car with a seatbelt on, to playing soccer properly
equipped. You are not allowed to participate in a soccer game without wearing shin guards, and
also are not allowed to drive a car without wearing a seatbelt. The main function of the seatbelt
is to stop your movement going forward when your car stops abruptly or changed direction
immediately. It causes you to stay where you are instead of causing you to go through the
windshield (The Need for Seatbelts and Children Restrains 6). Wearing a seatbelt by front seat
passengers can reduce the chances of a fatal injury by 45 percent and moderate to critical injury
by 50 percent (Travel and Motor Vehicle Safety).
From the first time a baby comes home in their car seat, up until they are driving their
own car, they are educated on the safety and responsibilities that go along with cars. No matter
what age a child is, they must all know the rule, regarding seatbelts. One of the focuses is to
educate young children on the importance of wearing your seatbelt, while not seeing it as
restraint. They have to understand that seatbelts are so important and how they could save their
lives and keep them safe if they are in a crash.

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Another group that needs to be educated on the importance of wearing a seatbelt are
adults. Many think that since they are older and experienced drivers, there is no reason for them
to wear a safety belt. I find it most important for adults to follow this rule. In 2009, more than
2.3 million adult drivers and passengers were treated in emergency rooms as a result of vehicle
crashes, said the author from the article Travel and motor vehicle safety. Adults need to
realize that car accidents can happen to them, and that they need to be prepared if they do occur.
Not only are they being role models for younger children, they are also protecting themselves
from injury.
Elderly people must be extremely aware and remember to always wear their seatbelt.
When it comes older adults they are at higher risk to get injured if in a dangerous accident. Their
age determines how frail and fragile they are and they must be extremely careful especially while
they are driving. It is easy for them to become seriously injured with even minor accidents.
Also, as people get older, their reaction time deceases. For example if a car in front of them
stops short, it takes them a longer amount of time to realize and react than it would a younger
driver. Older people also have a harder time hearing, than the younger drivers and might not be
as aware of sirens, horns, or bells as they should be. Based off of the examples I have mentioned
I feel that it is most important for older people to continuously wear their seatbelts.
To influence young children on seatbelts I decided to use a billboard. I thought young
kids would easily see it while sitting in the car gazing out the window. I thought it would be a
great idea to place the concept on a billboard where kids could look at it and learn something
new. In my billboard I used a bright orange background to grab the childrens immediate
attention. I used bold letters that say Arrive Alive so that the words jump off the page. Arrive
alive they could either understand its meaning based off of the words and the picture in the

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middle or they could ask someone else in the car what it means. I used a picture in the middle of
the page to show the kids what wearing a seatbelt looks like. The image was a basic black and
white figure sitting wearing the seatbelt across the body and lap. Also, in the picture it says safe
on the seatbelt also representing the importance of it. I also put a small saying on the right side
of the billboard saying Seatbelts Are For Everyone and it spells Safe going down in red to
emphasize the importance of their safety when it comes to wearing their seatbelt. I decided not
to use small print and a long lengthy saying because I wanted to grab the childrens attention. I
did not use a natural color background like white or black because I felt like it was plain and
boring and I did not want to use very busy pictures because I wanted my point to be straight
forward and easily identified. My groups decision to make a billboard as the genre for children
was a wonderful idea. It was the easiest way to get a large number of kids to see it and was
made so almost all children could understand it. Having a huge billboard in the middle of a long
boring road can make it easily identifies by not only children, but by anyone who may be on the
road. The only constraint that got in my way when using the billboard was, that for very young
children they might not be able to read the billboard. The only way they could understand it, was
if an adult or someone else read it to them or if they just ignored it altogether.
My group decided that another great way to spread the importance of safety in the car to
adults was through bumper stickers. Since most all adults drive bumper stickers could easily be
seen by millions of adults. Even though bumper stickers are not that big of an advertisement it
still can be seen by so many. In the bumper sticker we used a dark background so the words
would be the main focus. Right in the middle of the bumper sticker we put Someone loves
you. This statement was to help the adults to recognize that it is more important to wear your
seatbelt, than it is to get injured or even killed when so many people care and love them. I think

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that not wearing your seatbelt can easily be considered when you look back on all the people
who need you and depend on you every day. Underneath that saying, in smaller words is, Wear
Your Seatbelt. This is to put a meaning behind the first statement and to inform people that it is
not only that you are loved, but also there is a reason why you should be wearing your seatbelt.
A genre convention that was not used was a catchy rhyme or a picture. The bumper sticker that
was made my group decided should be plain and sticks to the point. Sitting at a stoplight or a
stop sign you do not have too much time to look at the bumper sticker anyway, so just a few
words to define the importance is all you need to get your point across. I feel the groups
decision to make a bumper sticker, as a genre for adults to use was a brilliant idea because it is
not a conventional or traditional idea, but something different and something that would be seen
by so many. I feel that the bumper sticker was made perfectly and could not be made any better
than it was designed. The only genre constraint that got in the way was determining if it could
be easily seen. Since the pattern is so dark maybe on some darker cars the sticker may not be
easily seen.
The last genre my group and I decided to use was the newspaper article for the older
generation of people. We felt that we commonly see older people reading the newspaper and
thought what better way to teach them the importance of the safety of the seatbelt than to put an
article in the newspaper. In this article we titled it Seatbelt Safety, to inform its readers that it
is about seatbelts and the good they can do for you. Under the title the article mentions the
purpose of the seatbelt and how it can be dangerous if you are not wearing one. By the end of
the article it mentions some statistics about who are more likely to wear seatbelts. These
statistics will help the older people to understand the importance of wearing a seatbelt and some
of the possibilities that could occur if they do not where one. Some genre conventions we did

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not use were pictured of fatal crashes and the image of injuries and what they could look like if
you do not wear your seatbelt. This article was a great idea to get the older generation to look at
it, but I feel like it needed a little more information to grab the readers attention and to teach
them how bad injuries could be if you do not wear your seatbelt. We could have found some
actual injuries that have occurred with people in fatal accidents who were not wearing their
seatbelts and other evidence associated with what happens in a vehicle when safety measures are
not being taken. I think my group took full advantage to the fact that many elder people would
read the newspaper article. I felt like there were no genre constraints when it came to the
newspaper article.
Based of the information presented and the genres my group and I made it is easy to see
that wearing a seatbelt is the most important safety precaution you must take when in a car. The
best text that met its social function was the billboard. I felt like it was great ways to spread the
information and have a broad group of people see it. The text that did not meet its social
function was the newspaper article. It was a very broad article and did not relate to anyone in the
older age group that read it. It should have been more interesting and intended more for the
older generation. As a group I feel that we made a lot of very good decisions with the genres
we chose to pick and grouping them with different age groups. The main subject from each
genre was made clear and direct. The only thing I would have changed would be the genre for
the elders. I wish we decided to put an advertisement in a placemat setting for diners and other
restaurants rather than a newspaper article.

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Work Cited
"Travel and Motor Vehicle Safety." Emergency Care for You. American College of
Emergency Physician. Web. 16 Nov. 2014.
<http://www.emergencycareforyou.org/YourHealth/TravelAndMotorVehicleSafety/Default.aspx
?id=26106>.
"What Happens in a Crash?" The Need for Seat Belts and Children Restraints. Web. 16
Nov. 2014.
<http://www.who.int/roadsafety/projects/manuals/seatbelt/seat_belt_manual_module_1.pdf>.Wo
rk Cited