EVALUATING THE EFFECTS OF SEAT BELT INFORMATION AND LEGISLATION IN ONTARIO

In January 1975, the Ontario Ministry of Transportation and Communications began to develop and implement a program to inform the public of the benefits of seat belts as a road safety countermeasure. This program was to be of substantial scale and comprehensive multi-faceted approach. The intent was to provide the evidence of seat belt effectiveness in a variety of forms, so that it could be absorbed into the popular wisdom over a period of a year or so. The Program was intended to be empirically evaluated to the maximum extent possible, within time and fiscal constrants. The program scale and the time constraints combined to pose a most interesting evaluation problem. In November, 1975, The Ontario Government announced mandatory seat belt legislation, which came into effect on Janauary 1st, 1976. Subsequent evaluative efforts concentrated on assessing the impact of this legislation, interaction of the effects of legislation with the earlier information program and with the reduction of speed limits,which occurred simultaneously. The paper outlines the measuring instruments used. The interim evaluation of the information program and the early effects of the requlatory changes are discussed.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • Proceedings of the 20th Conference.
• Corporate Authors:

  American Association for Automotive Medicine

  801 Green Bay Road
  Lake Bluff, IL  United States  60044
• Authors:
  • Lonero, L P
  • Gardner, N
  • Pang, H
  • Pierce, J
  • Toomer, M
  • Young, P
• Conference:
  • 20th Annual Conference of the American Association for Automotive Medicine
  • Date: 1976-11-1 to 1976-11-3
• Publication Date: 1976

Media Info

• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 14 p.
• Serial:
  • Volume: 20

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Laws; Manual safety belts; Measuring instruments; Public opinion; Publicity; Speed limits
• Subject Areas: Highways; Law; Safety and Human Factors; Society;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00144416
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: Highway Safety Research Institute
• Contract Numbers: DOT-HS-024-1-115
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: May 31 1977 12:00AM