SEAT BELT ARGUMENT

This report presents a review of current information on seat belts, a summary of the most pertinent recent findings with respect to seat belt effectiveness, seat belt usage, and approaches to increasing seat belt wearing. The main theme is that seat belts are effective. In Canada in 1972, of the approximately 4,500 vehicle occupant fatalities over 1,700 could have been avoided if everyone had been wearing the seat belt available to them. Improved design can gradually make seat belts in use less of an inconvenience. The lack of motivation to wear them, however, can simplistically be said to be due to the non-existence (or perceived non-existence) of some form of reinforcement. People have little incentive to wear them as they perceive the chance of an accident (punishment) to be low. Public education programs must be mounted with the aim of making the motorist aware of the traffic safety problem, aware of the life-saving potential of seat belts, and aware of proper methods of wearing.

• Corporate Authors:

  Transport Canada

  Road and Motor Vehicle Traffic Safety Branch
  Ottawa, ONo K1A 0N5,   Canada 
• Publication Date: 1974-7

Media Info

• Pagination: 27 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Attitudes; Design; Fatalities; Injuries; Manual safety belts; Traffic safety education
• Uncontrolled Terms: Convenience
• Subject Areas: Design; Education and Training; Highways; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00080749
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: CTS-4-75
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: May 1 1975 12:00AM