(From the Intermountain Injury Control Research Center)

1996 crash data from the University of Utah CODES project

• When a driver was belted, restraint use for children was 91%. When a driver was unbelted, restraint use for children dropped to 32%.

• Compared to belted crash victims, unbelted crash participants were over 11 times more likely to die in a crash.

• Unbelted Utahns were 5.8 times more likely to require inpatient hospitalization than those who were belted.

• The average hospital charge for a belted inpatient was $13,445. The average hospital charge for an unbelted inpatient was $18,139.

• If unbelted crash victims had used a seat belt, Utah could have saved 128 lives and 390 hospital stays.

Children

• When compared to other crash participants, unbelted children (ages 1-15) were six times more likely to be hospitalized, and seven times more likely to be killed.

• The older the child becomes, the more likely he/she is to be unbelted.

• At age 2, when children are no longer required by law to be in a car seat, the fatalities/hospitalizations more than triple.

Teenage Drivers

• Teen drivers were 1.6 times more likely than other drivers to be unbelted.

• When a teen driver was alone, his/her unbelted rate was 14.5%.

• When a teen driver was carrying passengers, the drivers' unbelted rate jumped to 21%.

• When the passengers in a teen driver's car were over the age of 4, the driver's unbelted rate increased to 29%.

• When a teenager was driving, the unbelted rate for passengers was 28%.