01626301

Component

Seatbelts are intended for all motor vehicle occupants - drivers and passengers. Research has shown that in a frontal or side-impact crash, unbelted passengers are likely to pose an increased risk of injury to other passengers sitting adjacent to or in front of them. Therefore, it is necessary that all vehicle occupants wear their seatbelts always. A previous study reported that during daytime hours when drivers wear their seatbelts, their respective passengers are much more likely to do so and if drivers do not use seatbelts, their passengers are likely not use seatbelts as well. Is this phenomenon also true during nighttime hours? The literature is silent on this. The objective of the paper is to investigate the seatbelt use rates of front seat passengers based on whether their respective drivers use seatbelts or not. Seatbelt use data from a sample of 11,439 vehicles with both driver and front seat passengers present were collected at 36 sites in East Tennessee and analyzed. Descriptive and statistical analyses were performed to evaluate the seatbelt use rates for passengers based on their drivers’ seat belt use behavior (wearing or not).This paper confirms that during nighttime hours, when drivers use seatbelts, their front seat passengers are much more likely to use seatbelts. The converse was also true. This behavior was no different for male drivers compared with female drivers for all vehicles types in urban and rural areas.

This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ANB45 Standing Committee on Occupant Protection.

01618707

17-04802

English

14p

2017

Transportation Research Board 96th Annual Meeting

Digital/other

Figures; Maps; References (22) ; Tables

Behavior; Drivers; Front seat occupants; Nighttime crashes; Passengers; Seat belt use

Tennessee

Highways; Safety and Human Factors

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2017 Paper #17-04802

TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Dec 8 2016 11:50AM