Seat belt use in 2015 reached 88.5 percent, up from 86.7 percent in 2014; this was not a statistically significant difference. This result is from the National Occupant Protection Use Survey (NOPUS), which is the only survey that provides nationwide probability-based observed data on seat belt use in the United States. The NOPUS is conducted annually by the National Center for Statistics and Analysis of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. In 2015, NHTSA conducted a redesign to select a new NOPUS sample representative of the most current demographic and traffic conditions. For more details, please see The 2015 NOPUS Redesign on page 4. Seat belt use has shown an increasing trend since 2000, accompanied by a steady decline in the percentage of unrestrained passenger vehicle (PV) occupant fatalities during daytime. The 2015 survey also found the following: * Seat belt use for occupants in the West is higher than in the other regions: Northeast, Midwest, and South in 2015. * Seat belt use continued to be higher in the States in which vehicle occupants can be pulled over solely for not using seat belts (“primary law States”) as compared with the States with weaker enforcement laws (“secondary law States”) or without seat belt laws. * Seat belt use for occupants in passenger cars increased significantly from 88.1 percent in 2014 to 90.3 percent in 2015. * Seat Belt use for occupants in pickup trucks increased significantly from 77.2 percent in 2014 to 80.8 percent in 2015. (Author/publisher)
Samenvatting