Belt Up NZ: 'just put your seatbelt on' - a grieving mother's plea

Ryan Gibbons was killed when the vehicle he was a passenger in left a road in the Pinewoods Holiday Park, in Red Beach, and went down over this 29m cliff. New Zealand Herald photograph

In the last five years, over 300 people who died in New Zealand crashes were not wearing their seat belt.

Most of those deaths were in 2016.

The Herald, partnered by the New Zealand Police has launched Belt Up - a four day series about seatbelt safety aiming to raise awareness and improve safety for all Kiwis on our roads.

Police say many of the 93 people who died in crashes last year while not properly restrained, could have survived had they been wearing a seatbelt.

Today we find out what is happening out on our roads.

Our message is simple.

Seatbelts save lives - Belt Up New Zealand.

The red Peugeot sits on the beach, crumpled, mangled - destroyed.

The body is warped, everything that used to be under the bonnet exposed and spilling onto the sand.

It landed in a heap of smashed metal and glass after it plunged down a 29m cliff from a road within a camping ground.

There were two teenagers in the car at the top, both alive and well.

But seconds later, as the car hit the sand, there was only one boy in the car, only one alive.

A simple click of a seatbelt could have changed everything.

Ryan Fraser Charles Gibbons, 19, was killed in the crash.

The wreck of a car after being retrieved from the bottom of a cliff at Red Beach. Photo / Supplied

His mate Aaron Kent, also 19 at the time, survived.

In fact, he walked away from the crash uninjured and made his way back to his parents' home.

Police would later reveal that when the car crashed Kent was wearing a seatbelt and Gibbons was not.

Had the promising young sportsman simply put his seatbelt on, he too could have survived.

His mother Karen Gibbons still struggles with the decision her youngest child made that night.

"The boys had always been taught that the first thing they did when they got in the car was to put on their seatbelts," she said.

"All the kids said after Ryan died that they were shocked because Ryan was a stickler for not starting the car until everyone had their seatbelts on.

"One of the girls said she remembered him stopping one day because she didn't have her seatbelt on and he wouldn't drive any further until she'd put it on."

Kent was convicted of reckless driving causing Ryan's death in March 2012.

He told the court that the pair went for a drive around the campground to find a place to have a cigarette when the crash happened.

The boys had been at Kent's parents' bach within the campground that night, with some other mates.

Kent was driving and Ryan was in the front passenger seat.

The speed limit within the grounds was 10km/h but Kent was going at least 30km/h and was not paying attention to the road as he changed radio stations on his stereo.

As he approached a right-hand bend at speed, he drifted to the left and off the road, colliding with a sign and then careering through a wire fence and down onto the beach below.

Ryan Gibbons was killed in a car crash in 2011. Had he been wearing a seatbelt he could have survived, like the driver. Photo / Supplied

Ryan was thrown from the car and died at the scene.

Kent got out and walked back to his parents' place, trying to stop people from going near the scene.

A blood test would later reveal he was almost three times over the legal blood alcohol limit.

Karen Gibbons believes her son - who had not been drinking - was probably hitching a ride with Kent from the bach to the carpark so he could come home.

"He always came home when he hadn't been drinking," she said.

"Because it was one way around the camping ground and 10km/h speed limit, he probably thought 'I'll be alright' going from the bach to the carpark.

"That's the only reason we can think that he didn't put it on that night."

Karen Gibbons said she will never forget police knocking on her door at 3am with a photograph of Ryan.

After the Serious Crash Unit took over the investigation, she learned her son had not been restrained and her shock and heartbreak deepened.

"I was surprised, because when the kids were younger we were parked on Whangaparaoa Rd and I went into a house to drop off a parcel to a friend and as I ran back out this guy had been changing his station on the stereo and hit the back of my car and turned it 90 degrees.

"The thing that saved the kids was their seatbelts."

Ryan Gibbons was killed when the vehicle he was a passenger in left a road in the Pinewoods Holiday Park, in Red Beach, and went down over a cliff. Photo / Sarah Ivey

Karen Gibbons still struggles with the loss of her son, who is survived by his older brother.

She wants others to learn from the tragedy - and to save other families from suffering the same grief and pain she has been through.

"People, especially the young ones, think 'nothing's going to happen to me, I'm invincible'," she said.

"It makes me angry, it's so frustrating.

"Just put your seatbelt on - before the car takes off... It would just stop you from being flung around.

"In Ryan's case, as the car started going over the cliff he went through between the two front seats and hit his head on the back window and that's when he died.

"And then he went out through the window - he was like a projectile, and then he was thrown. He was found about 5m from where the car landed.

"Even hitting a lamp post if you're wearing a seatbelt you're not going to be flung forward and go through the window and out of the car, you've got it there to keep you in."

She urged every person getting in a car to belt up, and wanted drivers to step up and do their bit to keep their passengers alive.

"You're the driver, you're the one that's responsible for whoever is in your car - no matter what age they are," she said.

"A driver should always be responsible."

• Safety belts save lives.

• They support you if you're in a crash or when a vehicle stops suddenly.

• The force on safety belts can be as much as 20 times your weight - this is how hard you'd hit the inside of your vehicle without restraint.

• Wearing a safety belt reduces your chance of death or serious injury in a crash by 40 per cent.

• Whether you sit in the front or the back seat, the risk of serious or fatal injury is virtually the same.

• NZ law requires drivers and passengers in cars and other motor vehicles to wear seat belts and child restraints.

• In the last five years, over 300 people who died in NZ crashes were not wearing their seat belt.

• Many of these people would still be alive today if they were safely wearing their seat belt.

(Source NZTA, MOT, NZ Police)