Seat belts can cause injuries, too, especially if worn improperly. But their overall public health benefits are considered to outweigh the risks: "The protecti

Seat belts can cause injuries, too, especially if worn improperly. But their overall public health benefits are considered to outweigh the risks: "The protective role of seatbelts against spinal injuries, and abdominal injuries also seems equivocal given that seatbelt injuries have been reported. Although findings of the current study suggest that the risk of abdominal injuries is lowest for belted occupants, the seatbelt syndrome which encompasses abdominal injury, has been extensively described in the literature as caused by improper seatbelt use [17, 23, 25]. This syndrome mostly affects the pediatric population [26], but it has also been documented in adults [22]. Improper seatbelt use has also been associated with intra-abdominal and spinal injuries [16, 22]. Seatbelt use has been shown to be associated with increased spinal injury severity, neurological deficit and fatality [48]. Compared to unbelted individuals, the frequency of thoracic and lumbar spinal injuries was shown to be higher in belted occupants [48]." https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-018-6280-1 https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s...