Buckling Up Behaviors: Exploring Americans’ Seatbelt Habits

Automotive safety technology has changed rapidly in recent years, with new and impressive features altering our expectations of protection on the road. From advanced safety system features such as blind spot detection to new autonomous driving capabilities, a range of guards against human error may be making us safer drivers – or at least defending us from those who aren’t.

However, the most powerful car safety device at our disposal may be so humble that we often overlook it: the seatbelt.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), seatbelts cut crash-related injuries and deaths by roughly half, saving about 15,000 lives a year. Simple and effective, seatbelts prompt only one question: Why do some of us fail to use them?

In this project, we surveyed 1,000 Americans of various demographics to learn how consistently they buckled up, and which groups still resisted the seatbelt’s safety appeal. Our findings reveal that seatbelt usage varies significantly, leaving many drivers vulnerable to deadly outcomes in a crash.

Read on to learn how your seatbelt habits compare to those of other drivers on the road.

Buckling Up, by Generation

To analyze the seatbelt habits of Americans by age group, we split our respondents into three generations by birth year:

• Baby Boomers: Born 1946–1964
• Generation X: Born 1965–1980
• Millennials: Born 1981–1996

Our results reveal an encouraging trend: The majority of every generation buckled up every time, no matter where they sat in the car.

Seatbelt use was particularly strong in the driver’s seat, where more than four in five members of every generation always used a seatbelt. The front passenger seat saw slightly lower numbers, although an overwhelming majority still used a seatbelt on every occasion.

In these front seats, Gen Xers were most consistent, followed closely by baby boomers and millennials. While recently licensed teenage drivers have notoriously low rates of seatbelt use, it seems we’re still relatively insensitive about safety in our 20s.

But in the back seats, more troubling findings emerged. Only slightly more than half of Gen Xers and millennials buckled up whenever riding in the back, and baby boomers did so just 64 percent of the time.

Perhaps these results relate to recent research on backseat safety habits, which found that people are less likely to use seatbelts in hired cars, such as taxis or ride-sharing vehicles. However, no matter who’s driving, rear passengers without a seatbelt are at risk of sustaining injuries as well, especially if they’re thrown from the car as human projectiles.

Buckling Up, by Gender

When it came to comparing genders, women were more likely than men to buckle up every time.

Perhaps that’s one reason insurers’ secretive pricing algorithms tend to generate higher premiums for men. While this finding may not surprise those who believe men are more reckless in all matters automotive, we also found that right-handed individuals had a better record of seatbelt use than their left-handed counterparts. This held true for both men and women, which leads us to wonder why this is the case.

Perhaps car manufacturers cater to the majority when designing their vehicle interiors, making the experience of putting on your seatbelt more uncomfortable for left-handed drivers and passengers. Or maybe lefties find driving one-handed more difficult because the seatbelt crosses over their dominant shoulder.

Whatever the reason, minor discomfort is certainly worth the added protection a seatbelt provides.

The Geography of Seatbelt Safety

Geographically speaking, much of the country boasted excellent rates of seatbelt use among drivers.

In the South Atlantic, Mountain, West South Central, and New England regions, more than 96 percent of drivers always buckle up when behind the wheel. However, there were also some regions with relatively low rates of seatbelt use, such as the West North Central areas.

Turning to our participants’ accident histories, we examined the percentage of drivers in each region who had been involved in an accident and the proportion of those who were not wearing seatbelts at the time.

While New England and the South Atlantic regions were most accident-prone overall, the East South Central region had the highest percentage of those involved in an accident when not wearing a seat belt. Many states in that region, such as Alabama, have significant rural populations in which the CDC has identified low rates of seat belt use.

Seatbelt Use, by Make

Our data also presented significant disparities in seatbelt tendencies among drivers of different kinds of cars.

While at least three-quarters of all the other manufacturers’ customers buckled up every time, some of Asia’s most powerful automotive brands saw relatively low figures. Fewer than 80% of Kia, Mazda, and Nissan drivers always use a seatbelt.

Owners of American-made vehicles had commendable rates of buckling up every time, however, with roughly 9 in 10 Chevy, Dodge, and Pontiac owners doing so. But the brand with the most seatbelt-conscious drivers was Volkswagen, boasting a 92 percent record for buckling up every time.

The manufacturer may be responding to its safety-oriented audience of late, earning the IIHS Top Safety pick designation for its 2018 Volkswagen Atlas.

Insisting on Safety

Among all generations, respondents most often said they were “extremely likely” to tell a significant other to buckle up. Parents elicited the second-highest rate of “extremely likely” responses, whereas fewer were likely to say something to a friend.

Millennials were significantly less likely to insist on seatbelt use than older respondents in each scenario. This resonates with our earlier findings that millennials are also less likely to wear seatbelts whenever behind the wheel – it’s unlikely you’ll insist your passenger buckle up if you neglect to do so yourself.

These findings might concern public health officials, who have long sought to use positive peer pressure from responsible friends to influence the driving safety of young Americans. If millennial drivers are relatively unlikely to insist their peers and loved ones buckle up, we can only hope their perspective changes as they age.

Click It or Ticket?

Unfortunately, law enforcement action doesn’t seem to be particularly persuasive in convincing drivers to use seatbelts more often.

Among those who had been ticketed for failing to wear a seatbelt before, the percentage of those who always buckled up was still dramatically lower than the group that had never been cited. The percentage of those who never or almost never wore a seatbelt was also higher among the ticketed group, suggesting some drivers’ habits are impervious to regulation.

Perhaps the penalties applied to first-time seatbelt offenders aren’t large enough to serve as an effective deterrent. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), fines range from $25 to $200.

As many people advocate for harsher penalties for other dangerous road behaviors, such as distracted driving involving smartphone use, it is possible that greater fines for seatbelt infractions will also be considered in the future.

Unsafe Excuses

To better understand why drivers went without seat belts, we asked respondents about their motives for not buckling up. For both genders, as either a passenger or driver, the primary justification was the short length of their intended trip.

This response at least implies that participants understand the safety value of the seat belt, even if they’re mistaken about the minimal risk associated with short trips. Fewer people cited seatbelt discomfort, although roughly 15 percent of passengers did say they felt they could go unbuckled in the back seat.

While relatively few people feared seatbelt were dangerous, more than a third of men and over 45% of women expressed concerns about being trapped in the event of an accident. Other common justifications included fear of whiplash or some other injury caused by the seatbelt specifically.

The Price of Poor Protection

Our findings suggest the majority of American drivers are conscious of a seatbelt’s life-saving potential and use them accordingly. However, a relatively small pool of drivers continues to risk injury and death by ignoring this simple precaution, despite the well-established benefits of buckling up.

If you’re among this group of seatbelt skeptics, we hope our results encourage you to reconsider. And if you already wear a seatbelt whenever you drive, keep up the habit in all circumstances.

Another essential aspect of protecting yourself on the road is great insurance, although finding the right coverage can seem a lot more complicated than remembering to strap yourself in. That’s why Quote.com is here to help, guiding you to the insurance you need for the lowest price possible. Our no-cost quotes can save customers $500 or more on their annual premiums – keeping your wallet safe as well.

Methodology

We surveyed 1,000 Americans using Amazon’s Mechanical Turk service. All results are weighted to be representative of the U.S. population based on age and gender.

Fair Use Statement

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