United States Department of Transportation
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Encouraging Full Time Use of Safety Belts among Current Part-Time Users
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1991-01-01
[PDF-5.34 MB]
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Edition:Final report
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Abstract:A large percentage of drivers report using their seat belts only some of the time. Most part-time users report they buckle up only for highway driving because they believe that driving around their community does not expose them to a significant risk of crash or personal injury. If these drivers learned about the true hazards of driving on local roads and, as a result, became somewhat anxious about these risks, it might be possible to motivate them to adopt the easy solution to reduce their uneasiness: buckling up all the time. In recognition of this thinking, a study was conducted to determine whether safety belt messages highlighting the risks of local automobile travel can motivate part-time seat belt users to buckle up more often. The primary experimental intervention was a specialty designed brochure intended to (1) make the part-time seat belt user feel somewhat nervous about not buckling up all the time and (2) provide a means of reducing his or her anxiety: always bucking up. The brochure was mailed to residents of three apartment complexes. Another apartment complex received an existing brochure developed for non-users. Residents of two of the apartment complexes were invited to participate in a cash prize drawing if they correctly answered six questions based on information provided in the brochure. Drivers were observed exiting the apartment complexes before the brochure was mailed, two weeks after the mailing, and tan weeks after the mailing. A statistically significant increase in belt usage was found during the second round of observations among those residents who received the specially developed brochure, but the gain did not persist over time. No difference in belt use occurred among residents who received the existing brochure. The quiz had no effect on scat belt behavior at any time in the study. The study indicated that a brochure targeted to part-time seat belt users that focuses on raising and then reducing low-level anxiety about riding unbuckled can increase belt use modestly among the general driving population, This modest effect suggests that the anxiety raising and reducing strategy has some potential to motivate increased scat belt use. Further use of the brochure should be contingent on identifying and implementing cost-effective strategies to (1) increase the number of drivers who read the brochure and (2) maintain increased usage over time among these initially motivated drivers. However, the most cffcctive means of using the brochure would be to incorporate it into a community-based seat belt campaign that relies on a variety of mutually reinforcing strategies designed to raise and then reduce low-level anxiety about riding unbuckled. An appendix to the report provides guidelines for groups and organizations to implement a scat belt campaign of their own using the brochure. /Abstract from report summary page/
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