Facts About Adult Safety Belt Safety
Adult safety belt use is on the rise in the United States. The risk of injury and death are primary factors in this rise as well as states enforcing harsher laws and penalties to those who don't choose to 'click it'. Learn some interesting facts to help you better understand why states are cracking down on the law.
Effectiveness of Adult Safety Belt Use
The use of a shoulder/lap belt in the front seat of a standard vehicle lowers the risk of death by 50 percent and the risk of a severe injury by 45 percent. In trucks with a load capacity of under 400 pounds use of shoulder/lap belts reduce the risk of death by 60 percent and the risk of critical injury by 65 percent.
Approximately three quarters of people who are thrown from a vehicle during a crash die. Only 1 percent of people who are ejected from a vehicle during a crash were wearing a safety belt.
In 2005, 55 percent of those who died or were injured in traffic accidents were not wearing a safety belt.
Safety Belt Laws
New York passed the first mandatory seat belt law in 1984. Since then 48 other states, as well as Washington D.C., have passed seat belt laws.
Of the 29 states with safety belt enforcement laws only 17 have primary laws. Police in these 17 states may pull over and issues tickets to drivers whose occupants are not using safety belts even if no other traffic laws are being broken.
States that have primary enforcement laws have significantly higher safety belt use than those which do not. As more states adopt primary laws, more people choose to wear safety belts. In 1994, only 55 percent of vehicle occupants reported always using a safety belt verses 80 percent in 2004.
Fears of racial profiling by the police who could use safety belt laws to pull over and harass minorities have proven false in studies conducted in both California and Louisiana.
Demographics Of Adult Safety Belt Use
Rural residents are 10 percent less likely to wear safety belts than their urban and suburban counter parts.
Men are also 10 percent less likely to wear a restraint belt than women.
Vehicle occupants’ aged 18 – 34 are far more likely to not buckle up than those 35 and older.
African American men are the least likely group of individuals to wear safety belts and are therefore the most likely to die in an auto crash.