News

November 4, 2003
Seat Belt Use Slipping Among Youth

by John Rossomando
Staff Writer
The Northern Virginia Journal

Despite efforts to get every driver to buckle up, people are not heeding the warnings – with disastrous results.

Traffic safety officials worry younger people "who think they are immortal" are forgetting to wear seat belts.

Statistics show 19-year-olds who don't wear seat belts account or the largest number of fatalities.

AAA says although most of today's adolescents and young adults use safety belts as a matter of habit, use has slipped in recent years, resulting in a slight rise in fatalities.

Statistics kept by the National Highway Safety Administration show although seat belt usage has risen from around 10 percent in 1983 to 80 percent today, 20 percent of the population still does not use them, with a large portion of them being between 18-34.

"The people that end up in fatal crashes tend to buckle up much less than your normal average driver," said Elizabeth Baker from the NHTSA.

In Virginia, the motor vehicle department's statistics show more than 60 percent of those killed in car crashes were not wearing seat belts. Fifty-six percent of fatal crashes in Maryland involve failing to wear a seat belt.

"What we're seeing is that we have to get more targeted with the groups that need to hear the message – either from an enforcement standpoint [or] education standpoint," said Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles Assistant Commissioner Vince Burgess. "The 18-to-34 age group is the age group that is over-representing itself in these fatalities. Until
they change their behavior, those numbers aren't going to go down any further."

Changing people's behavior pattern in that age group is "a hard nut to crack," Burgess said.

Out of the fatal crashes involving those not wearing seat belts, a large percentage of them involved alcohol, but Virginia's DUI rate ranks lower than the national average due to strict enforcement, Burgess said.

"Since 1997 we have seen a very nice drop [in alcohol-related crashes]," he said. "[But now] we're going the wrong way; and that's why we are doing Checkpoint Strikeforce; and that's why we're putting $600,000 in paid media."

Sobriety checkpoints and the "Click It or Ticket" program, which aims to raise seat belt awareness with the threat of getting a ticket, officials said, are the most effective ways to cut down on the number of crash fatalities related to alcohol or not wearing a seat belt.

"People don't like being pulled over," Baker said. "The biggest deterrent is the fear of getting caught."

A Halloween 2003 sobriety checkpoint in the Fair Oaks section of Fairfax County, headed by the Fairfax County Police, netted two drunken drivers out of a total of 748 cars stopped.

Fatal crashes related to alcohol or safety belt usage also have a serious economic impact. The National Highway Safety Administration estimates crashes involving serious injuries and fatalities cost the economy $1.63 billion last year, with a disproportionate number of costs caused by younger generations.

Statistics show states with primary seat belt laws, which allow officers to pull drivers over who don't buckle up, tend to have fewer fatal crashes than those with secondary seat belt laws. Secondary offenses can occur when a driver is pulled over for another reason.

On average, seat belt use tends to be higher in states with laws making not wearing a seat belt a primary offense, Baker said.

Compared to Virginia, statistics show Maryland has an 82.9 percent seat belt usage rate, which NHTSA officials attribute to its primary seat belt law.

"We could get well into the 80s if Virginia had a primary seat belt law," Baker said.