Two Canterbury surgeons have renewed calls for "deadly" vehicle lapbelts to be banned.
Many countries that supply cars to New Zealand are outlawing the belts, but yesterday the Government confirmed it would not review their use.
Christchurch surgeons Grant Coulter and Spencer Beasley have written to the health
and transport ministers warning that many people, including children, would die if lapbelts were not outlawed, The Press reported.
Their letter follows a series of accidents in recent years in which people wearing lapbelts suffered injuries while other passengers wearing diagonal belts escaped largely unharmed.
"For as long as there is inaction, children and adults will continue to suffer massive, serious and often fatal injuries if they sit in the rear centre seats of many of our modern cars," the surgeons wrote.
The Transport Ministry said it would not review the legality of the belts because research showed people rarely used a car's centre back-seat position.
Dr Coulter, a senior surgeon at Christchurch Hospital, said he was baffled why new cars were still able to be fitted with the "deadly" lapbelts when it was clear how little they protected those wearing them.
Two years ago leading car safety advocates called for the outright ban of lap seatbelts on imported vehicles.
They also called for a campaign to upgrade vehicles already fitted with them.
Huntly coroner Bob McDermott called for lapbelts to be banned, and said they caused shocking injuries and killed people.
He wanted three-point seatbelts to be compulsory.
And research by the Starship Children's Hospital in Auckland also found lap seatbelts could cause life-threatening injuries or permanent disabilities in children, and called for lapbelts to be phased out.
- NZPA
