The 'Seat Belt and Child Restraint Usage in NSW, October-November, 1990' survey was for the first time conducted by an outside consultant on behalf of the Roads and Traffic Authority. The major findings from the survey were: overall, the wearing rates have increased significantly since 1989, and in total 92.4% of all vehicle occupantsin NSW wore an available restraint. This increase is in line with the trend over the past 5 years. Drivers continue to have the highest wearing rates (94.9%), and given that 65% of occupants are drivers, this reflects a very high level of restraint wearing amongst occupants. Whilst rear seat adult passengers have comparatively low restraint wearing rates (68.6%), only 4.6% of all occupants fall into this only 4.6% of all occupants fall into thiscategory. The overall road safety problem from their low wearing rates is therefore small. Child wearing rates are higher in the rear seat (84.7%) than the front seat (82.0%), however 80.0% of children travel in the rear seat. There is clearly scope for efforts to be made to increase restraint wearing rates amongst rear seat child occupants. Children aged 5-8 years have the lowest correct wearing rate for children (59.8%), whilst children aged 6-12 months have the highest, at 86.9%. Wearing rates in taxis are far below the level of non-taxis, especially for drivers. Sydney taxi drivers had a wearing rateof 10.4%, while in NSW Country, 4.4% of taxi drivers wore an available seat belt (A).
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