Seat Belt Usage and Primary Enforcement

The November 2006 American Journal of Public Health reports on a study entitled Safety Belt Use and the Switch to Primary Enforcement 1991-2003 (96:1949-1954) regarding the upgrade of state safety belt use laws from secondary enforcement to primary enforcement (which would allow an officer to cite drivers solely for not wearing a seat belt). On average, states that have made the switch experienced an increase in belt usage of about 10 percentage points. Every 1-percentage point translates into 136 fewer vehicle occupant fatalities. In terms of the economic costs of crash fatalities, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimates that an upgrade to primary enforcement in all states would save more than $700 million a year in medical and emergency costs, lost productivity, insurance, rehabilitation costs, and legal costs. The study also looked at higher fines and concluded that for every $10 rise in fines, safety would improve by as much as 1.35 percentage points.