Highway Safety

GAO reviewed 44 published and unpublished studies on safety belts and related laws and assembled a review panel to help evaluate studies and formulate conclusions. The studies showed that safety belt use generally reduced both the fatality rate and the serious injury rate by 50 to 75 percent in motor vehicle crashes. In addition, states with safety belt laws cut fatalities and serious injuries by 5 to 20 percent compared to states with no laws. Existing state safety belt laws could be strengthened to (1) include coverage to rear seat occupants, (2) extend coverage to light trucks and vans, and (3) facilitate enforcement. One recent study pegged the total annual costs of traffic crashes to society at $334 billion. Most studies that addressed hospital costs reported that belted victims averaged 60 to 80 percent lower hospital costs than did unbelted victims. Studies found that unbelted occupants hurt in crashes paid less than one-half of their hospital expenses, with most costs being paid through insurance premiums or Medicare and Medicaid.

GAO found that: (1) 21 safety belt effectiveness studies comparing death and serious injuries experienced by belted occupants with unbelted occupants show that belt use reduces both the fatality rate and the serious injury rate by 50 to 75 percent in motor vehicle accidents; (2) although the studies vary in methodologies used and data source approaches, 13 studies that specifically analyzed occupant deaths showed that the fatality rates for belted occupants ranged from 41 to 94 percent lower than the rates for unbelted occupants; (3) 11 studies comparing injuries received by belted and unbelted occupants show that injury levels for belted occupants range from 17 to 88 percent lower than the rates for unbelted occupants; (4) 22 studies evaluating the effectiveness of mandatory safety belt use laws show that state laws have been effective overall in preventing deaths and reducing injuries; (5) 17 studies show that laws requiring safety belt use reduce fatality rates by 5 to 20 percent, while 14 additional studies also show that most injury reductions range from 5 to 20 percent; (6) many existing state laws mandating safety belt use could be strengthened by including coverage to rear seat occupants, extending coverage to light trucks and vans, and facilitating fines for not using safety belts; (7) a May 1991 report sponsored by the Federal Highway Administration estimate the total 1988 annual costs of traffic accidents to be $334 billion; (8) studies show that hospital costs for belted victims are 60 to 80 percent lower than hospital costs for unbelted victims; and (9) one study suggests that society pays up to 69 percent of out-of-pocket costs, lost wages, and lost household production that result from motor vehicle accidents.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

Director: Team: Phone: