So far, 680 people have been killed in traffic accidents this year in South Carolina, according to the state's Department of Public Safety. Troopers believe many of those lives could have been saved with seat belts.
Now Highway Patrol is using a new safety education tool to drive home the message of the importance of buckling up.
Before the demo, Trooper Sonny Collins fastened seat belts on two crash dummies inside the rollover vehicle. It's the cab portion of a pickup truck.
Collins says 70 percent of our fatalities statewide are not buckled up.
When he starts the demo vehicle in motion, it spins at 18 miles an hour. You can see through the windshield that the dummies are locked solid in the vehicle and never move.
Then Collins unbuckles them, and within a few seconds, they're thrown from the vehicle. "They're thrown around the cab, hitting the dashboard, windshield, and even being ejected," Collins describes.
Collins hopes people take this demonstration to heart - and buckle up.
Highway Patrol will use the rollover vehicle a lot in Florence County because of its high traffic fatality rates. So far this year, 15 people have died in traffic crashes in the county.
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Earlier story on carolinalive.com -
The South Carolina Highway Patrol demonstrated a new education tool Thursday afternoon in Florence. It's called a Rollover Vehicle, and it's meant to teach people what happens if they're not buckled up during a crash.
The device is a pick up truck cab attached to a trailer. The cab spins, mimicking a crash, with two crash test dummies inside. The dummies are not wearing their seat belts.
NewsChannel 15's Tonya Brown will show you the machine in action tonight on NewsChannel 15 at 6 and later, right here on CarolinaLive.com.
