Effectiveness of Media and Enforcement Campaigns in Increasing Seat Belt Usage Rates in a State with a Secondary Seat Belt Law

Abstract

Objective: In 2005, in terms of seat belt usage rates, Nevada ranked third nationally and first among states with secondary seat belt use enforcement laws in the United States. An effective combination of a media-based education and enforcement campaign helped in this regard. The objective of this article is to document the effectiveness of enforcement and media-based education and outreach campaigns on the seat belt usage rates in Nevada, a state with a secondary seat belt usage law

Methods: Observational data on seat belt usage and passenger fatality data are used to evaluate the effectiveness of enforcement campaigns and media-based education and outreach campaigns. Data based on observations of about 40,000 vehicles in each of the years 2003 to 2005 were analyzed.

Results: Statistical analyses show that a significant increase in seat belt usage rates among both drivers and passengers for both genders resulted from the accompanying the media and enforcement campaigns.

Conclusions: The results from this study indicate that effective and well-planned media/enforcement campaigns can have a significant impact on seat belt usage rates even in a state where the enforcement of seat belt laws can only be as a secondary violation. They validate and expand on findings from other efforts documented in the literature. These results demonstrate that, if coordinated properly, media and enforcement campaigns work very effectively in increasing seat belt usage rates even in states with secondary seat belt laws.

Keywords:

• Seat belt
• Occupant protection
• Safety
• CIOT campaign

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors are grateful to a number of individuals and organizations who provided invaluable support on efforts that led to the development of this manuscript. Several students and staff members from the Transportation Research Center at UNLV helped with the data collection and integration efforts. The guidance and support provided by Charles Abbott, formerly of the Nevada Office of Traffic Safety, is appreciated. The authors thank the Nevada OTS for financial assistance that formed the basis of the initial efforts in the development of this article. The authors thank two anonymous referees for valuable comments that helped improve the manuscript. The authors are responsible for the accuracy of information presented in this article, and the opinions presented herein are solely those of the authors and they do not necessarily reflect those of the Nevada OTS, UNLV, or Iowa State University.