Road Safety
Rear Seatbelt Wearing Campaign
When it became compulsory in 1991 for adults to wear seatbelts in the back of a car, there was an immediate increase from 10 per cent to 40 per cent in observed rear seat belt wearing. TV and radio advertising in 1993 and 1994 helped to improve wearing rates but still less than half of rear seat passengers complied. Since 1994, advertising, mainly TV and radio, has promoted rear seatbelt wearing.
However, the years between 1991 and 1998 saw little further improvement. Wearing a seatbelt is not an easy practice to enforce. Car passengers need to be educated about the dangers not just to themselves but to front-seat passengers and drivers as well. Research in 1998 showed that 160 lives could be saved a year, of which 40 are front-seat passengers or drivers hit by the unbelted passenger.
Most children up to the age of 13 wear seatbelts. However from age 14, wearing seatblets is less common. A survey by the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) of attitudes to seatbelt wearing found that nearly all young people wore their belts as front seat passengers. On the other hand, they gave a variety of excuses for not wearing belts when in the back of the car, even though they knew it was the law to wear them.
Research among the target audience suggested they were aware they could be injured, but they were not aware that they could kill the driver (nor did the driver know this).
The campaign focused on this fact. The aims of the campaign were to:
- increase awareness of the dangers of not wearing a seat belt in the back of a car
- encourage rear seat passengers to do so
- remind drivers and front seat passengers of the threat posed to them by an unbelted rear seat passenger.
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