NHTSA launched its “Click It or Ticket” campaign to encourage seat belts.
Nearly half of all vehicle occupants killed on US roads in 2021 were not wearing seat belts, the highest number in 10 years, according to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) data released Tuesday .
NHTSA said that of the 26,325 passenger vehicle occupants killed in traffic crashes during 2021, 11,813 were unrestrained.
According to the agency, most of those who died when they were not wearing a seat belt were in the driver’s seat.
“Being in an accident without wearing a seat belt can have fatal consequences, fatalities have skyrocketed in recent years,” said Jessica Cicchino, vice president of research at the Insurance Institute for Safety in roads (IIHS) in an interview with ABC News. “If more people wore seat belts, we would see thousands of lives saved.”
The report comes as NHTSA begins its annual “Click It or Ticket” campaign “to encourage drivers and passengers to buckle up, reminding everyone that seat belts save lives.”
“Putting on your seat belt only takes two seconds, but it can save your life,” said NHTSA Chief Counsel Ann Carlson. “Whether you’re in the front seat or the back seat, wear your seat belt on every ride, every time.”
According to the report, for traffic crashes in 2021, 60% of pickup truck drivers who died were not restrained, compared to 49% of SUV drivers, 47% of passenger car drivers and 44% van drivers.
That same year, 17,303 male occupants of passenger vehicles were killed, almost double the number of female occupants killed. The agency found that of those numbers, 8,367 men and 3,426 women were not wearing seat belts.
The report also showed that of the more than 26,000 car passengers killed in 2021, 11,820 people were wearing seat belts at the time of the crash.
“We have to do everything we can to prevent fatalities, and seat belts can make a big difference in whether or not you survive a crash,” Cicchino said. “We also need to look at what we can do to reduce speeding and also reduce things like drink driving – all of these things can contribute to your risk of dying in a crash.”
NHTSA says that frontal airbags used in combination with seat belts “provide effective safety protection for the occupants of passenger vehicles.” Front airbags reduce fatalities by 14 percent when seat belts were not used and 11 percent when seat belts were used in conjunction with front airbags, the agency said.
“Airbags can be very helpful in protecting you when you’re in an accident as well,” Cicchino said. “But seat belts can also add to that protection, and so we don’t want people to think they don’t need to wear them because their vehicles have airbags, all of these things can help save your life.” .
