Citation

Williams AF, Wells JK, Lund AK. Accid. Anal. Prev. 1983; 15(2): 161-165.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1983, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Seat belt use of high school drivers was observed at six high schools in Maryland and for comparison, at locations near each school. Use rates for high school drivers ranged from one percent to 21%, varying with socioeconomic status of the areas in which the schools were located. For non-high school drivers the range was 8-31%. For the six schools, the ranking of use rates from lowest to highest was the same for high school and non-high school drivers. However, at each school, belt use rates for high school drivers were lower than for non-high school drivers. At five of the schools, use rates for non-high school drivers were more than double the rates for high school drivers: they were more than five times as high at three schools. Prior research indicates that increasing the use of belts that must be manually fastened is difficult to achieve. The most reliable way substantial increases can be made in the extent to which teenagers and others are restrained in crashes is by providing restraints that work automatically, such as air bags.