Buckling Up: Technologies to Increase Seat Belt Use;Special rept

摘要

Using seat belts is one of the most effective strategies available to the driving public for avoiding death and injury in a crash. Today, however, nearly 35 years after the federal government required that all passenger cars be equipped with seat belts, approximately one-quarter of U.S. drivers and front-seat passengers are still observed not to be buckled up. Nonusers tend to be involved in more crashes than belt users, and belt use is lower--about 40 percent for drivers--in severe crashes. Moreover, at observed national belt use rates of 75 percent, the United States continues to lag far behind the 90 to 95 percent belt use rates achieved in Canada, Australia, and several northern European countries.