VTI has observed seat belt use in a number of towns in central Sweden since 1983. The observations in 2011 were made over a total of ten days in August-September 2011, averaging out at one day at each studied site. In total, approximately 60,200 passenger cars, 1,300 taxi cars and 7,300 other vehicles were observed. When VTI commenced the surveys in 1983, seat belt use by adult back seat passengers was at a modest 10 per cent. When the law requiring all adult occupants to wear seat belts in passenger cars came into force on 1 July 1986, the figure quickly increased to 60 per cent. According to the latest observations, slightly more than 80 per cent of all adult back seat passengers wear a seat belt. The corresponding level for children in the back seat has consistently stayed in the region of 10-20 percentage points higher. In 2011, around 96 per cent of all children in the back seat wore a seat belt. During the whole survey period, 1983-2011, seat belt use by drivers and front seat passengers has been at a considerably higher and more uniform level. At the beginning of the surveys, 84-86 per cent of drivers and front seat passengers already wore a seat belt. Today, the levels are slightly higher than 96 per cent. Since the surveys in 1994, a subproject studying the drivers and the correlation to age and sex of the drivers, has been in force simultaneously. Seat belt use is lowest among young male drivers, ranging between18-25 years, at 79 per cent 2011, and this is considerably lower than in 2010. In the same age group, 92 per cent of all women wear a seat belt. In the age groups 26-35, 36-50 and “51-“, 90-92 per cent of men and 97-98 per cent of women wear a seat belt. With the exception of the youngest drivers, records have been very stable in recent years. Seat belt use by taxi drivers has been observed at all observation sites since 1995. Furthermore since 1 October 1999, taxi drivers have been required by law to wear a seat belt and the figure subsequently increased steadily to 93 per cent as observed in 2009. This is close to the level of seat belt use among drivers of passenger cars. Additionally, in 1996 VTI commenced studies of seat belt use in heavy goods vehicles (HGV). Similar to the taxi drivers, the level of seat belt use by HGV drivers has increased since 1996, even though the initial seat belt use was rather modest and the increase not as strong. In the heaviest vehicles, with or without trailers, approximately 5-7 per cent of all drivers wore a seat belt in 1999 compared to every second driver by 2011. New figures on seat belt use have been made available since 2009 by integrating data from both VTI and the National Society for Road Safety (NTF) to reflect a national level. This data set comprises drivers and adult front seat passengers in passenger cars. The 2011 result showed that the proportion of seat belt use was close to 96 per cent for both drivers and passengers. (Author/publisher) This report may be accessed by Internet users at http://www.vti.se/en/publications/the-use-of-seat-belts-in-sweden-2011/
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