How to Reach the Last of the Seat Belt Use Holdouts (BTS-35)

Federal Research Projects

January 31, 2025

Project Underway: This project will design and conduct research on the remaining fraction of Americans who do not use seat belts, with the goal of identifying practical, actionable countermeasures that can be implemented by state highway safety offices and their partners to motivate the last seat belt use holdouts to buckle up.

Project Overview

Project Underway

Buckling up is the single most effective thing drivers and passengers can do to protect themselves from death or serious injury in a motor vehicle crash. Seat belt use in passenger vehicles is estimated to save more than 10,000 lives annually in the United States. And although most Americans seem to understand the lifesaving value of seat belts – the national seat belt use rate was at 91.6% in 2022 – large numbers of vehicle occupants still do not buckle up.

Related Issues

Seat Belt Use

Related Resources

Federal Research Projects

January 29, 2025

Informing the Selection of Countermeasures by Evaluating, Analyzing, and Diagnosing Contributing Factors that Lead to Crashes (BTS-14)

Recognizing that vehicle and mode mix matters in the success of investment strategies, this project assessed best practices in crash diagnosis across crash types in modal diverse contexts.

Section 402 State and Community Highway Safety Grant Program

Federal Grant Programs

January 1, 2025

Section 402 State and Community Highway Safety Grant Program

The Section 402 program provides grants to states to improve driver behavior and reduce deaths and injuries from motor vehicle-related crashes.

Section 405: National Priority Safety Program

Federal Grant Programs

January 1, 2025

Section 405: National Priority Safety Program

Section 405 is the National Priority Safety Program, which provides grant funding to address selected national priorities for reducing highway deaths and injuries.