Seat belts save lives. For 50 years this fact has motivated auto manufacturers to improve their belt systems, states to pass and enforce laws requiring belt use, and drivers and passengers to buckle up. The results are impressive. All states except New Hampshire require front seat occupants to be belted. The states publicize and enforce these laws regularly and urge occupants to buckle up. Front seat belt use in passenger vehicles has increased from 11% in 1979-1982 to 87% in 2014. NHTSA estimates that seat belts saved the lives of 12,584 passenger vehicle occupants age 5 and older in 2013 alone. However, belt use laws, enforcement, and public information campaigns often overlook rear seat passengers. Twenty-two states do not require belt use in rear seats. Only 18 states and the District of Columbia have a rear seat belt use law with primary enforcement. Rear seat belt use is not highlighted in traffic safety messages. As a result, rear seat belt use in vehicles observed on the road in 2013 was 78%, 9 percentage points lower than front seat belt use. In fatal crashes — crashes in which a person died, not necessarily a passenger vehicle occupant — rear seat belt use in 2013 was 60% compared to 74% in the front seat. Rear seats are safer than front seats in most crashes. The public knows this, perhaps because of the many messages that children should sit in rear seats. But front seats have become safer for adults in recent model year cars, due to improved air bags and front seat belt systems, while rear seats have not. An unbelted adult is now only slightly safer in the rear seat. In any seat, adults are considerably safer when belted. Taxis and other for-hire vehicles play a small but important part in this story. Five states (Illinois, Maryland, South Carolina, Vermont and Wisconsin) exempt some or all for-hire vehicle passengers from their rear seat belt law. Many people who regularly buckle up in private cars and vans ignore the belts when they ride in taxis or other for-hire vehicles. The rapid rise of ride services such as Uber and Lyft is producing many trips in which rear seat passengers are not used to riding in the rear seat and may not buckle up. As of November 2015, Uber and Lyft each operated in over 175 cities and metropolitan areas in North America (http://www.uber.com/cities, http://www.lyft.com/cities). In the first quarter of 2015, Forbes reported that almost half of all paid rides by business travelers in major United States markets used Uber. At the beginning of 2015, Lyft was providing 2.5 million rides a month. By the end of the year, the company says it expects it will provide almost 13 million rides a month, or about 90 million rides in 2015. This spotlight summarizes data on rear seat belt use. It reviews the states’ rear seat belt laws, enforcement, and publicity using information obtained from all 50 states and the District of Columbia through a survey. It recommends how the laws, enforcement, and publicity can be improved and estimates the lives that will be saved if rear seat belt use increases. In this report, a passenger vehicle is a car, light truck, or van. A rear seat is any designated seating position behind the front seat, which includes third rows for vans and SUVs. The report addresses only passenger vehicle occupants age 8 and older. (Author/publisher)
Abstract