A new Penn Medicine study found that driving conditions were much more predictive of seatbelt use than drivers’ demographic characteristics. Using data from nearly 130,000 trips, researchers found that drivers were less likely to buckle up at night, while traveling at higher speeds, and during shorter trips.
Senior author M. Kit Delgado, MD, MS, said the findings suggest that future seatbelt campaigns should focus on the specific moments when people are most likely to skip buckling. Lead author Jeff Ebert, PhD, noted that connected-vehicle data could help deliver more timely and personalized safety interventions.