01626318

Component

The purpose of this paper is to compare the nighttime seatbelt use rates of drivers of single-occupant vehicles and drivers of multi-occupant vehicles when a passenger occupies the front seat of the vehicle. The seatbelt use was investigated using data from direct nighttime seatbelt observations at 42 sites in East and Middle Tennessee in 2015. These consist of 28,272 single-occupant vehicles and 12,674 multi-occupant vehicles. Descriptive and statistical analysis of the study showed that the nighttime seatbelt use rates of drivers of multi-occupant vehicles increases significantly when their corresponding passengers use seatbelts compared to drivers of single-occupant vehicles. On the contrary, the rates for drivers of multi-occupant vehicles decreases significantly when their passengers do not use seatbelts. The results were consistent across vehicle type (passenger cars, pickup trucks, sport-utility vehicles, and minivans) and area type (rural and urban),.This study suggests that having passengers in vehicles (whether belted or not belted) impact drivers’ seatbelt use at night. This may be of particular interest to state and private agencies in developing intervention strategies and safety belt use campaigns aimed at increasing nighttime seatbelt use.

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

01618707

17-04904

English

14p

2017

Transportation Research Board 96th Annual Meeting

Digital/other

Maps; References (40) ; Tables

Behavior; Drivers; Driving; Front seat occupants; Night; Passengers; Seat belt use

Tennessee

Highways; Safety and Human Factors

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2017 Paper #17-04904

TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Dec 8 2016 11:52AM