Buckling up: seat belt use among Americans up 85 percent

More Americans wearing seat belts

Nearly 85 percent of American adults are now wearing seat belts, an increase from 81 percent in 2002 and up significantly from just 11 percent in 1982, before legislation requiring Americans to buckle up was passed, according to a survey by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Authorities have credited the use of six out of seven adults to a decline in vehicle accident fatalities and injuries. Non-fatal injuries fell more than 15 percent from 2001 to 2009, the CDC said in its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report on January 4. The total number of crash deaths in 2009 was 33,808 which is the fewest since 1950.

"What we have here is good news," CDC director Dr. Thomas R. Frieden said in a press conference. "Wearing a seat belt on every trip has become the norm in America, and that is associated with a steady fall in injuries and deaths from motor vehicle crashes."

Frieden said that the campaign to lower the number of automobile crash injuries is a  "winnable battle". But health authorities said there is much to be done to encourage seat belt use. Among American drivers, one in seven still refuse to wear a seat belt. Also, for those aged five to 34, automobile crashes are the number one cause of death.

The CDC said that an estimated 34,000 Americans were killed from vehicular accidents last year. As many as 2 million adults are rushed to emergency departments every year nationwide because of injuries suffered from such crashes. The agency says wearing a seat belt will lower by half the risk of being injured or killed in a vehicular accident.

Posted by Sophia Andrews on Wednesday January 05 2011, 1:31 AM EDT. Ref: Business Week. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Featured News, Travel. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0