Safety Belt Technologies
Increasing seat belt use is one of the most effective and least costly means of reducing the lives lost and injuries incurred on the nation’s highways each year, yet about one in four drivers and front-seat passengers continues to ride unbuckled. Congress requested a study to examine the potential of in-vehicle technologies to increase seat-belt use. Convincing motorists to buckle up is a top priority of NHTSA’s as it seeks ways to reduce the 42,000 deaths and more than 3 million injuries that occur each year. NHTSA is urging industry to deploy vehicle-based technologies, such as seat-belt reminder systems, to encourage further gains in belt use, but the agency is prohibited from requiring such technologies by federal legislation dating back to 1974, which allows NHTSA to require only a 4- to 8-second chime to remind motorists to buckle up. New technologies would combine flashing lights and chime components but vary in their loudness, urgency, and duration.
Increasing seat belt use is one of the most effective and least costly means of reducing the lives lost and injuries incurred on the nation’s highways each year, yet about one in four drivers and front-seat passengers continues to ride unbuckled. Congress requested a study to examine the potential of in-vehicle technologies to increase seat-belt use. Convincing motorists to buckle up is a top priority of NHTSA’s as it seeks ways to reduce the 42,000 deaths and more than 3 million injuries that occur each year. NHTSA is urging industry to deploy vehicle-based technologies, such as seat-belt reminder systems, to encourage further gains in belt use, but the agency is prohibited from requiring such technologies by federal legislation dating back to 1974, which allows NHTSA to require only a 4- to 8-second chime to remind motorists to buckle up. New technologies would combine flashing lights and chime components but vary in their loudness, urgency, and duration.
Limited available research on reminder systems indicates that they do boost seat-belt use (Special Report 278: Buckling Up: Technologies to Increase Seat Belt Use; TRB 2003). Survey research and focus group discussion conducted for the study requested by Congress provided insight into how acceptable new technologies might be. Most respondents viewed reminder systems as effective and acceptable. The most restrictive systems, which would lock the transmission until front-seat occupants were belted, were viewed by respondents as effective but were not deemed acceptable.
Given the potential of less intrusive new technologies to save lives, the committee urged Congress to give NHTSA greater latitude in encouraging and potentially requiring such systems. Automobile manufacturers are urged to make reminder systems standard equipment for front-seat occupants. The committee recommended that NHTSA first evaluate the range of reminder systems being introduced and then require those found to be most effective.