The first legal requirement to wear a seat belt in the front seats of vehicles came into effect in the UK in 1983. By 1991, seat belt wearing was a legal requirement in all seating positions and wearing rates were higher than 90%. Amongst the road safety community there was a feeling this constituted a ‘job well done.’ However, since 2013, data has been published on the percentage of people who were not wearing a seat belt when they died in cars on UK roads. In 2017, 27% of those who died in cars were not wearing a seat belt (in cases where seat belt status was known). This report by PACTS shows who these people are, their reasons for not wearing seat belts, and the effectiveness of potential interventions at increasing seat belt wearing and reducing road deaths. To better understand seat belt non-wearing, an extensive literature review and in-depth interviews with road safety experts were conducted and detailed analysis of Stats19 data (information on road traffic collisions collected by police) has been completed. (Author/publisher)
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