Samenvatting
Safety belt use reached 79% in 2003, a 4 percentage point improvement over the 75% rate seen last year. Approximately 17% of belt nonusers were converted to users, twice the rate seen in previous years. Use continues to vary in different parts of the country, with higher rates in states that can enforce their belt laws more stringently. These results are from the National Occupant Protection Use Survey (NOPUS), the only probability-based observational survey of belt use on the road nationwide. The survey is conducted annually by the National Centre for Statistics and Analysis in the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). This report presents the findings of the 2003 survey. (Author/publisher)