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Traffic Tech

Technology Transfer Series

Number 224 May 2000

1998 MOTOR VEHICLE OCCUPANT SAFETY SURVEY

SHOWS CONSISTENT GAINS ACROSS AMERICA

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) conducts a national telephone survey every two

years to monitor the public's attitudes about seat belts, child safety seats, reasons for their use or non-use,

knowledge of seat belt laws, experience with law enforcement, and attitudes about risk perception. The 1998

survey consisted of two questionnaires, each given to a randomly selected sample of about 4,000 persons age 16

and older (with younger ages oversampled) for a total of about 8,000. Interviewing ran from November 5, 1998

through January 12, 1999.

Seat Belt Use

About four-fifths (79%) of drivers said they used their seat belt all the time. Among those whose belt

systems did not have an automatic component, all the time belt use was lowest among those with lap

systems only (61%) and highest for those with one-piece lap and shoulder systems (80%). For two-piece

belt systems, drivers were much more likely to use their lap belt all the time if the shoulder belt was

manual (88%) rather than automatic (62%).
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All the time usage was lower for males (74%), persons in low income households (74%), pickup truck

drivers (65%), and persons in the heaviest weight quartile (67% for males, 77% for females).

Proportionally, fewer blacks (75%) than whites (79%), but more Hispanics (85%) than non-Hispanics

(79%), reported all the time usage.

Ten percent of drivers who said they wore their belt all of the time also said they had not worn their seat

belt while driving in the past day or week. More than 70% of most of the time users made the same

admission. A revised self-report belt use measure, which subtracted drivers who said they had not worn

their seat belt recently from the all the time user group, almost matched exactly the seat belt use rates

obtained in a NHTSA national observation survey conducted at about the same time as the telephone

survey.

One-third of drivers (34%) said they at least sometimes drive as part of a job or business, either almost

every day (56%) or a few days a week (26%). Less than half (48%) of these drivers said that their

company had a policy requiring seat belt use while driving on the job, a decline from 53% in 1996.

Drivers' reported seat belt use tended to be higher if they thought their company had a seat belt policy.

Reasons for Use and Non-use of Seat Belts

The more years of formal schooling, the more likely people were to say they used seat belts primarily to

avoid injuries.

Persons who had not gone to college were more likely than those with less years of formal schooling to

say that their main reason for using belts was that it was the law.

When asked which reason for their non-use of seat belts was most important, forgetting was ranked first

(24%), and short distance ranked second (22%).

Few drivers said they never wore their seat belt. Non-users' reasons differed from part-time users as they

listed discomfort more often. Part time users more often gave reasons related to risk perception (for

example, they were only going a short distance).

Attitudes about Seat Belts, Risk Perception and Fatalism

The vast majority of the public either strongly (86%) or somewhat (8%) agreed with the statement "If I

were in an accident, I would want to have my seat belt on." As reported belt use increased, so did

agreement with the statement.

More than one-third of the public (38%) either strongly (15%) or somewhat (23%) agreed with the

statement "Seat belts are just as likely to harm you as help you." As reported belt use increased, agreement

with this statement decreased.

Among persons ages 16-24, 63% either strongly (46%) or somewhat (17%) agreed that "I have a habit of

wearing a seat belt because my parents insisted I wear them when I was a child." The number dropped to

36% for those ages 25-34, and 23% for those ages 35-44.

The fatalistic belief that wearing seat belts did not matter because "if it is your time to die, you'll die" was

more prevalent among drivers who reported lower levels of seat belt usage; 22% among all the time users,

35% among most of the time users, 52% among some of the time users, and 61% among those who rarely

or never wore seat belts. Blacks (40%) and Hispanics (31%) were more likely to agree with this statement

than were whites (25%) and non-Hispanics (27%).
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Trends Over Time

Reported seat belt use among drivers increased from 74% in 1994 to 76% in 1996 to 79% in 1998.

Support for standard enforcement provisions for seat belt laws increased from 52% of the total population

in 1996 to 58% in 1998.

HOW TO ORDER

For a copy of 1998 Motor Vehicle Occupant Safety Survey Volume 2 Seat Belt Report, (192 pages) prepared by

Alan Block of NHTSA, data collected by Schulman, Ronca & Bucuvales, Inc. write to the Office of Research

and Traffic Records, NHTSA, NTS-31, 400 Seventh Street, S.W., Washington, DC 20590 or send a fax to (202)

366-7096. Volume 2, Methodology Report is also available. Download from www.nhtsa.dot.gov

U.S. Department

of Transportation

National Highway 

Traffic Safety 

Administration

400 Seventh Street, S.W. NTS-31

Washington, DC 20590

Traffic Tech is a publication to disseminate

information about traffic safety programs,

including evaluations, innovative programs,

and new publications. Feel free to copy it as you wish.

If you would like to receive a copy contact:

Linda Cosgrove, Ph.D., Editor, Evaluation Staff

Traffic Safety Programs

(202) 366-2759, fax (202) 366-7096

E-MAIL: lcosgrove@nhtsa.dot.gov