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The purpose of this report was to take a retrospective glance at Virginia's experience in getting her citizens to use the automobile safety restraint systems available to them. In Virginia, data on safety belt and child safety seat use were collected annually from 1983 until 1994. Data on child safety seat use were not collected in 1995, although safety belt use figures were again gathered. The data revealed that, for most years, the change in safety belt use rates was small. The use of child safety seats increased substantially after the effective date (January 1, 1983) of the statute requiring it. Safety belt use by front seat occupants also increased substantially following the effective date of the mandatory use law (January 1, 1988), which applied only to front seat occupants. However, use by rear seat occupants was lower in 1989 and 1990 than in 1987. Infants had higher rates of safety restraint use than did older passengers, with the infant use rate peaking in 1991. Further, belt use was higher in metropolitan areas. Both safety restraint use statutes were effective in increasing the use rates of the target populations: infants and front seat occupants. Virginia legislators should enhance the lifesaving potential of passenger restraint systems by mandating the use of safety belts by rear seat passengers.
During nine days in June 1983, 1984, and 1985, four major metropolitan areas of Virginia were surveyed to determine the extent to which safety restraints were being used by urban travelers. Observers stationed at selected signalized intersections displayed to stopped motorists a clipboard bearing the question, Are you wearing safety belts? The observers then approached the vehicles to visually verify any response given, and recorded whether safety belts or child safety seats were being used. They also recorded the license numbers of the vehicles and the sex and approximate age of each occupant. Results published in previous reports have shown that passage of the state's Child Safety Seat Law resulted in a significant positive change in the usage rates by passengers less than four years of age. The rates of usage for infants in 1983, 1984, and 1985 were nearly identical. Nearly three-fourths of the infants traveling as right front passengers (RFP's) and two-thirds of the infants classed as remaining passengers (RP's) were observed to be in safety restraints (Table 6). The 1985 data replicate earlier findings that when there was an infant in the car, and the infant was in a child safety seat, belt use by drivers and passengers was significantly higher than use rates by drivers and passengers when the infant was not in a child seat (Table 3). In 1984 and 1985, over 30% of the drivers, 40% of the RFP's, and 75% of the RP's used belt systems when a child was in a child seat, but fewer than 10% of these occupants were using safety restraints when the child was not in a child seat. The study also identified an association between the driver's use of safety belts and the use by other passengers. When drivers do not use belts, few passengers use belts. When drivers use lap belts, an increasing proportion of passengers use safety belts. Belt use rates by passengers are highest when drivers use the lap/shoulder belt combination (Table 2). This longitudinal study of observed belt use patterns shows an increase in the use of safety restraint systems by drivers and passengers. In June 1985, 28.4% of the drivers and 25.7% of all passengers were using belt systems (Table I). The rates in 1984 were 20.4% and 19.4% and those in 1983 were 16.4% and 19.0% An analysis of the data also produced additional findings that could relate to various educational or public information campaigns. These findings include the following: I. the percentage of belt use by female drivers and RFP's is higher than that for their male counterparts (Table 4); 2. belt use by drivers was highest in the afternoon, but use by passengers was highest in the morning (Table 5); 3. other than that for infants, belt use was highest for middle adult drivers and pre-adult passengers (Table 6); 4. belt use by drivers and passengers was greater in newer cars (Table 7); and 5. belt use was highest in the northern area and lowest in the western area of the state (Table 9). These findings lead to the conclusion that the Child Safety Seat Law has been responsible for a significant increase in restraint usage by infants. There also appears to have been a spillover effect that has increased safety restraint usage by other categories of vehicle occupants.
This series of observational surveys to determine child safety seat use in Virginia began in 1993 at the request of officials of Virginia's Department of Motor Vehicles. During all 5 years (there was no survey in 1995), data for metropolitan areas were collected at the same locations, at the same time of day and day of week, and in accordance with the same criteria for determining use. In 1997, data collection was added for safety restraint use by occupants 4 to 16 years of age at the request of officials of the Virginia Department of Health (VDH), which is now responsible for the state's child safety seat program. In addition, VDH requested that sites be added in communities with a population between 50,000 and 100,000 (mid-size cities), so 7 sites were added. The 1998 data show that the proportion of children riding in the front seats has shifted. For metropolitan area occupants under 4 years of age, the proportion of front seat occupants was 19.6% in 1997 and 7.3% in 1998 (p
Observational surveys of child safety seat use were conducted at the request of the Transportation Safety Administration of the Department of Motor Vehicles. The present survey was conducted in the four areas of the state with the largest populations. The data were categorized as correct use, incorrect use, and no use for each seat position in the car for children judged by the survey team to require safety seats under state law. Correct child seat use was higher (51.6%) in the rear seats of cars than in the front seats (40.8%). For the entire car, only 48.9% of the children were in a correctly used child seat, 33.6% of the child occupants were not in a safety seat, and 17.5% of the seats were obviously misused. The data also showed variations in the pattern of use among the four areas of the state. The rate of incorrect use was probably underestimated by this survey. There is a need to address the problems of non-use and incorrect use through increased education and enforcement efforts on the part of the state and localities.