Seat Belt Use Up in County

October 13, 2011

Richland County Safe Communities Releases Latest Seat Belt Survey Results

The Richland County Safe Communities Coalition has released the results of its latest survey of seat belt use by drivers in the county.

The 2011 surveys showed a 2% (two percent) increase over the 2010 survey results. Combining the June and September surveys put seat belt use in Richland County was just over 86%.  In the combined observational surveys, 4,915 drivers of passenger cars, SUVs, vans, and pickup trucks were recorded with 674 operators of those vehicles not wearing seat belts.

The 86% is the highest seat belt use percentage since surveys were conducted and a 4% increase since the 2007 survey. The Coalition has been doing surveys since 2002 and using a standardized form provided by the Ohio Traffic Safety Office for the last five years. Surveys are done at 19 locations in Richland County. The purpose of the surveys is to evaluate the effectiveness of seat belt use education and seat belt enforcement in increasing seat belt use in the county.

In 2002 the Richland County Safe Communities Coalition conducted its first seat belt survey in the county and showed seat belt use at only 69%. That was still slightly higher than the state average at the time. Since that date, Ohio has done an extensive advertising campaign demonstrating the benefits of wearing seat belts. The “What’s Holding You Back?” theme, along with the national “Click It Or Ticket” enforcement efforts, have resulted in a 16% increase in seat belt use in Ohio.

Despite that increase, Reed Richmond, a Health Educator at the Mansfield/Ontario/Richland County Health Department who coordinates the surveys, says he has seen some disturbing trends. “The number of adult drivers who are using seat belts but not making sure their children in the front seat are restrained is unsettling,” Richmond says. “We’re even seeing them being driven to school with the youngsters unbuckled.”

“We’re still observing poor seat belt use by senior drivers in Shelby and Plymouth,” Richmond says, “and seat belt use by pickup drivers in rural areas hasn’t risen much since we started doing surveys.” Overall seat belt use in Shelby was at 81% and in Plymouth at 83%, both under the county average.

Richmond notes that drivers using seat belts on Springmill Street in Mansfield were particularly low. “We’ve seen very poor use by male African-American drivers from 16 to about 40 years old.” Seat belt use at the three survey locations on Springmill Street was 80%. The three locations represented 30% of the unbuckled drivers in the total survey. Of that total, African-Americans drivers overall were showing just 63% seat belt use.

Richland County Seat Belt Survey Results by Years

*Drivers only
(surveys also keep passenger rates and breakdown by age, gender, and race)

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