FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Statement by Cathy Chase, President, Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety on Front and Rear Seat Belt Use
(Washington, DC-May 16, 2023) During the launch of the annual “Click It or Ticket” enforcement mobilization starting May 22, 2023, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) rightly is bringing attention to the need for greater seat belt use. Seat belts save lives but only if people use them, and far too many do not. In 2020, among passenger vehicle occupant fatalities with known restraint use, 50 percent seated in the front row and 59 percent of those in the second row were unbuckled. We urge all drivers and passengers to buckle up in every seat, every trip.
Yet, there’s much more U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) Secretary Pete Buttigieg and NHTSA must do to improve motor vehicle safety including issuing the rear seat belt rule required in the 2012 Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21) while Europe already has a rear seat belt reminder requirement. Considering the skyrocketing number of people unnecessarily dying on our roads, this commonsense measure must be completed with all urgency.
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Note: for more information on seat belt use, please see our Fact Sheet
Media Contact: Helen Jonsen
hjonsen@saferoads.org | 202-977-7534