Abstract
Countries surveyed by the report, representing over 80% of the world's car population, experienced a decrease in road accident fatalities following the oil supply restrictions in 1973. The decrease is said to have been greatest in those countries that had not introduced compulsory seat belt legislation. In countries surveyed which have introduced seat belt laws there have been increases in the percentage of car occupants wearing belts but no corresponding reduction in the total numbers of road accident fatalities. Following these observations, the report suggests that the protection of car occupants from accident injury by the use of seat belts itself encourages bad driving behaviour.