February 2009

State of Georgia

Comprehensive Primary Seat Belt Law Fact Sheet

Costs:

  • Traffic crashes cost the Nation about $230 billion each year in medical expenses, lost productivity, property damage, and related costs.

Georgia pays about $7.9 billion of these costs.

That is $959 for every resident of Georgia, each year.

About 74 percent of that cost is paid by citizens not involved in the crashes.

  • Crashes cost employers about $1.4billion annually in the State, and about $420 per employee.
  • The Safety Belt Performance Grants in Section 2005 of SAFETEA-LU would entitle the State to about $20.7 million if it enacts a comprehensive primary seat belt law.

Primary Seat Belt Laws:

  • In States with comprehensive primary seat belt laws, law enforcement officers may stop a vehicle and issue a citation when the officer observes an unbelted driver or passenger. Officers in secondary enforcement seat belt law States may only write a citation after the officer stops the vehicle or cites the offender for another infraction.
  • In States with secondary enforcement provisions, more than half of the public 16 and older support primary enforcement of seat belt laws. In States with primary laws, support of primary enforcement stands even higher at 73 percent. (MVOSS 2007)
  • Georgia’s current primary seat belt law provides an exemption for pickup trucks. NHTSA estimates that if Georgia amended its law to include pickups, seat belt usage for pickup trucks could increase by approximately 10 percentage points.
  • By including pickups in the primary belt law, Georgiacould save an estimated30 lives, 454 serious injuries, and $104 million in costs each year. (Based on a 10.3 percentage point increase from the 2008pickup truck seat beltuse rate.)

Usage Data:

  • 10.4 percent of Georgia’s population–over992,000 people–is still not buckling up.
  • An estimated 613 lives were saved by seat belts in Georgia in 2007, and 171 additional lives could have been saved with 100 percent seat belt use.

2004

/ 2005 / 2006 / 2007 / 2008

United States

/ 80% / 82% / 81% / 82% / 83%

Georgia – overall

/ 86.7% / 89.9% / 90.0% / 89.0% / 89.6%

Georgia – pickups

/ 75.4% / 79.6% / 69.0% / 73.8% / 74.3%

Fatality Data:

  • In 2007, 275 people died while riding in pickup trucks in Georgia. Of these, 74 percent died while not wearing their seat belts compared to 68 percent nationwide. (2007FARS Data)
  • Over 49 percent (805/1,641) of Georgia’smotor vehicle traffic fatalities occur in rural areas, and the fatality rate per 100 million vehicle miles traveled is almost2 times higher in rural areas than in urban areas. (2007FARS Data)
  • In 2007, 79 percent of nighttime pickup truck fatalities in Georgia were unrestrained compared to 70 percent of daytime pickup truck fatalities. (2007 FARS Data)