"Teen belt use rates are especially low at night."
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is paying particular attention to subnormal seat-belt wearing rates among teenaged motorists in this month’s nationwide “Click it or Ticket” campaign.
According to Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, of the 4,540 16-to-20-year-old vehicle occupants killed in crashes in 2007, 2,502–more than half–were unbelted at the time. “Teen belt use rates are especially low at night,” he noted, while kicking off the campaign at a Virginia high school last week.
Overall, the Department of Transportation estimates 1,652 lives could be saved and 22,372 serious injuries avoided annually if Americans raised their belt-wearing rates to 90% in every state. Based on 2007 data, 15,147 lives were saved that year because crash vehicle occupants were wearing their belts.
As reported in this TheDetroitBureau.com, there is wide variance among the states in belt-wearing rates. Naturally, those states with primary seat belt laws have the highest rates. A “Primary” state authorizes police to make stops if they note lack of restraint system use; whereas Secondary states permit issuance of tickets only after a vehicle has been stopped for some other violation. Primary state Michigan, for example, has consistently shown usage rates over 90% for the last five years.
Besides teenagers, other groups needing particular attention are pickup truck drivers and occupants, African-Americans and Hispanics.
In a survey conducted by Wayne State University in September 2008 covering nearly 20,000 Michigan drivers and passengers, Asians and Pacific Islanders had a belt usage rate of 99%, Caucasians 97.5%, Hispanics 96.8% and African-Americans 95.3%. Note: Michigan has a comparatively small Hispanic population. Usage in Sport Utilities was best at 97.8%, while passenger cars and vans/minivans came to 97.2% and pickups trailed at 96%. The survey also showed high restraint system usage among children under age 16 (their parents are watching out for them) and seniors over 59. Females were observed wearing belts 98.2% of the time, ahead of males who recorded 96.3%. The closeness of all the rates listed shows how well Michigan drivers have been educated on seat belts.
The DOT seat belt campaign this month will involve more than 10,000 police agencies nationwide, supported by $8 million in advertising funded through Congress. The ads, in English and Spanish, are aimed at generating awareness of the Click It or Ticket campaign, giving fair warning to vehicle occupants to fasten up.