Organisation: Department for Transport
Date uploaded: 30th September 2010
Date published/launched: November 2008
This report identifies who does not wear a seat belt, and outlines the different reasons behind why they do not.
The programme was funded by the Department for Transport and comprised an innovative approach based on pulling together the three organisations and using their respective strengths to address what remains a significant road safety problem.
Ever since seat belts were first introduced in the UK, a lot of effort has been directed at persuading people to wear them, but it is widely accepted that many more lives would be saved and serious injuries prevented if more people used their seat belts when travelling.
The project provides a better understanding of the usage of and attitudes towards seat belts among the population at large. The first phase of the work programme investigated who does and who does not wear a seat belt, on what occasions and began to describe why. This phase of the research has involved collating data from the pertinent literature, in-depth accident studies, road-side observational surveys, and key informant interviews, firstly with road safety experts and then with infringers who were identified as those who, at least occasionally, do not use their seat belts.
From the accident studies, unbelted vehicle users were found to be significantly over-represented when fatalities were investigated, for example evidence from the Co-operative Crash Injury Study (CCIS) (Cuerden, 2006) showed that approximately 30% of car drivers who were killed in recent years were not wearing their seat belts. From comparison studies with seat-belted car drivers in similar crashes, it is estimated that at least half of those killed would have survived if all had worn their seat belts.
For more information contact:
Department of Transport Research Team