States with primary enforcement laws have lower fatality rates (updated). [This is an update of States with Primary Enforcement Laws Have Lower Fatality Rates, Cejun Liu, Tonja Lindsey, Chou-Lin Chen, & Dennis Utter. NHTSA Research Note, DOT HS 810 557, February 2006. Washington, DC

This Research Note compares the percentage of unrestrained passenger vehicle occupant fatalities and fatality rates between States that have primary seat belt use laws and States that do not have them for the most recent years, 2005 and 2006. Besides having a smaller percentage of passenger vehicle occupant fatalities who were unrestrained, the fatality rates in primary enforcement States (PE States) were much lower than for all other States (non-PE States). The total passenger vehicle occupant fatality rate per 100 million VMT for non-PE States (1.06) is 9 percent higher than that for the PE States (0.97). The total passenger vehicle occupant fatality rate per 100,000 population for the non-PE States (11.78) is 15 percent higher than that for the PE States (10.20). Compared with a previous study,† the difference between non-PE States and PE States during 2005 and 2006 is smaller than that between 2000 and 2004 (during 2000-2004, the fatality rate per 100 million VMT and the fatality rate per 100,000 population for non-PE States is 17 percent and 23 percent higher than that for the PE States, respectively). (Author/publisher)