'Abysmal' Rate Of Seat Belt Use Sparks DOT-Industry Campaign
Fewer than half of all truck drivers use the simplest, most effective safety device at their disposal — their seatbelts.
That's the message from Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta, announcing the results of the first survey of seat belt use among truck drivers. The survey found that only 48% of truck drivers buckle up, compared to 79% of automobile drivers.
Of the 588 truck drivers killed in accidents in 2002, more than half were not buckled in. Of the 171 ejected from their trucks, almost 80% were not buckled, the survey found.
"If you are one of the more than five and half million truck drivers who choose not to wear your safety belt, I have a message for you," Mineta said in an announcement. "Uncle Sam wants you — no, needs you — to buckle up."
Following up on the survey, DOT announced a national campaign to get truck drivers to use their safety belts. Partnering with DOT in the effort are American Trucking Assns., the Motor Freight Carriers Assn., the National Private Truck Council, the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Assn. and the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance.
DOT has budgeted $500,000 next year to prepare educational materials and to assist the partners, said spokesman Brian Turmail.
Annette Sandberg, chief of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, described the 48% statistic as "abysmal."
"We need to get these guys to buckle up," she said in a recent interview with HDT (see story). "It's just as important that they go home at the end of the day as it is everybody else. The seatbelt is the simplest mechanism for saving a life in a crash. You won't save everybody, but you'll save a lot."
Also, DOT is urging state legislatures to pass primary seat belt laws, which permit police to pull over motorists who are not using their seat belts. Twenty states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico now have primary laws, which result in 11% more seat belt usage than other states, Turmail said.
Most other states have secondary laws, which permit police to cite drivers for not buckling up, if they have been pulled over for other reasons. New Hampshire is the only state with no seat belt law.
Primary laws in all states would save 1,400 lives and $230 billion a year, Turmail said, citing statistics from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
He said Mineta has pledged to assist any state legislator who wants to pass a primary law.
—By Oliver Patton, Washington Editor
