Estimating Economic Benefits Due to Increased Seat Belt Use: A Case Study
Even though the safety benefits of using seat belts are well-known among the transportation community, the average usage rates in some states remain at relatively low levels. Among many factors that could be contributing to the situation are the types of the seat belt laws. While many states still need to aggressively work on passing the primary seat belt law, estimating the benefits associated with increased seat belt use in terms of money might help in convincing the general public and the legislators. Accordingly, this study estimated the effectiveness of seat belts in reducing injuries and 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. These values were estimated using the 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 was found to be 53% and 55%, respectively, 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 million. Similar methodology could be used by any other state to estimate the expected economic benefits due to increased seat belt use.
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Corporate Authors:
Iowa State University, Ames
Institute for Transportation
Ames, IA United States 50010-8664 -
Authors:
- Dissanayake, Sunanda
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Conference:
- 2009 Mid-Continent Transportation Research Symposium
- Location: Ames Iowa, United States
- Date: 2009-8-20 to 2009-8-21
- Publication Date: 2009
Language
- English
Media Info
- Media Type: Web
- Pagination: 3p
- Monograph Title: Proceedings of the 2009 Mid-Continent Transportation Research Symposium
Subject/Index Terms
- TRT Terms: Case studies; Crash data; Crash injuries; Economic benefits; Highway safety; Seat belt use; Seat belts
- Subject Areas: Highways; Safety and Human Factors; I80: Accident Studies;
Filing Info
- Accession Number: 01139759
- Record Type: Publication
- Files: TRIS
- Created Date: Sep 18 2009 7:07AM