seat belt accident data washington

Seatbelts Help Protect Drivers from Death, Serious Injury

By Hardwick & Pendergast, P.S. on May 21, 2012

Nearly half of all car accident deaths and over one-third of all serious injuries are suffered by people who were not wearing a seat belt at the time of the collision, according to the Washington Traffic Safety Commission.

The Commission analyzed traffic crash data in Washington from 2006 to 2010. Studies found that both the overall number of car accident deaths involving un-seat-belted motorists and the percentage of those who lost their lives in accidents where they weren’t wearing seat belts have decreased in recent years, as efforts to encourage seat belt use have increased. In 2006, for example, 198 people who died in fatal auto accidents in Washington were not wearing seat belts at the time. This number represented 44.8 percent of all lives lost in car accidents that year. In 2010, however, the number of people who were not wearing a seat belt during a fatal accident dropped to 102, or 35.4 percent, of the total. Read the rest »