Estimating Economic Benefits Due to Increased Seat Belt Use: Case Study

This study estimated the effectiveness of seat belts in reducing injuries and estimated the associated economic benefits using state of Kansas data. The estimation process included two stages. In the first stage, seat belt effectiveness in reducing injuries to motor vehicle occupants was estimated using crash data from the Kansas Accident Reporting System (KARS) database. These values were estimated using logistic regression method, separately for two vehicle groups, passenger cars and other passenger vehicles that included vans and trucks. In the second stage, the estimated seat belt effectiveness values were used to estimate potential injury reductions due to increased seat belt usage, which were then converted into dollar values by assigning economic costs to each type of injury severity. According to the estimations, seat belts are 56% effective in preventing fatal injuries when used by passenger car front seat occupants. In the other passenger vehicle group that included vans and pickups, seat belts were found to be 61% effective in preventing fatalities. The seat belt effectiveness, in reducing incapacitating and non-incapacitating injuries, were respectively found to be 53% and 55% for passenger cars group, and 52% and 51% for other passenger vehicle group. Based on the economic analysis, it was found that 1% incremental increase in current seat belt usage rate could annually save about $14 million to the state of Kansas. If seat belt usage in Kansas reaches the 2005 national average rate of 82%, the expected annual economic savings could be estimated to be around $222 millions. Similar methodology could be used by any other state to estimate the expected economic benefits due to increased seat belt use.

• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • Dissanayake, Sunanda
  • Ratnayake, Indike
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 88th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2009-1-11 to 2009-1-15
• Date: 2009

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: DVD
• Features: References; Tables;
• Pagination: 14p
• Monograph Title: TRB 88th Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers DVD

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Costs; Crash injuries; Economic benefits; Fatalities; Front seat occupants; Highway safety; Injury severity; Passenger cars; Seat belts; Trucks; Vans
• Geographic Terms: Kansas
• Subject Areas: Highways; Safety and Human Factors; Vehicles and Equipment; I83: Accidents and the Human Factor; I91: Vehicle Design and Safety;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01122758
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 09-2309
• Files: TRIS, TRB
• Created Date: Feb 27 2009 7:50AM