Seat Belt Use, Especially among Low-Use Drivers, Increases as Florida Upgrades to Primary Seat Belt Enforcement [Traffic Tech]

Details

• Corporate Creators:
  United States. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
• Subject/TRT Terms:
  • Drivers
  • Highway safety
  • Rural areas
  • Seat belts
  • State laws
  • Traffic law enforcement
• Publication/ Report Number:
  DOT HS 811 657
• Series:
  NHTSA BSR Traffic Tech
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.21949/1525858
• Resource Type:
  Brief
• Geographical Coverage:
  United States ; Florida
• Corporate Publisher:
  United States. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
• Abstract:
  As a secondary seat belt law State, Florida had worked for many years to encourage more drivers to wear their seat belts by participating in annual Click It or Ticket (CIOT) mobilizations, and by conducting special programs in rural areas of the State. When Florida upgraded its seat belt law to primary enforcement on June 30, 2009, there was an excellent opportunity to evaluate the impact of the law change in the context of the annual CIOT high-visibility enforcement (HVE) mobilization that concluded one month before. Additionally, detailed driver data were available from 36 northern counties that were part of a Rural Demonstration Program (RDP) to increase seat belt use. Overall, observed belt use increased 7.3 percentage points from April to July 2009, 3 points immediately after CIOT plus another 4.3 points after the primary law went into effect (from 77.9% to 80.9% to 85.2%). This was the highest usage rate achieved in Florida at the time. By June 2010, Florida’s seat belt use increased to 87.4%. The 2010 gain was from a baseline that was 6.4 percentage points higher than in 2009.
• Format:
  PDF
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/2039/dot_2039_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 896.77 KB]
• Collection(s):
  NHTSA - Behavioral Safety Research
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:dffb3a8d63ca1aca0674f80c66dbc77ebcdb9ebff93695c55fbd377a62b4d24f