Using seat belts is one of the most effective strategies available to the driving public for avoiding death and injury in a crash (Dinh-Zarret al. 2001, 48). 

Today, however, nearly 35 years after the federal government required that all passenger cars be equipped with seat belts, approximately one-quarter of U.S. drivers and front-seat passengers are still observed not to be buckled up (Glassbrenner 2002, 1).

Nonusers tend to be involved in more crashes than belt users (Reinfurt et al. 1996, 215), and belt use is lower—about 40 percent for drivers—in severe crashes (O’Neill 2001).

Moreover, at observed national belt use rates of 75 percent, the United States continues to lag far behind the 90 to 95 percent belt use rates achieved in Canada, Australia, and several northern European countries.

Convincing motorists to buckle up is a top priority of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) as it looks for ways to reduce the 42,000 deaths and more than 3 million injuries that occur each year on U.S. highways (NHTSA 2002a).

NHTSA is urging industry to deploy vehicle-based technologies, such as seat belt reminder systems, to encourage further gains in belt use, but the agency is prohibited from requiring such technologies by federal legislation dating back to 1974.

A brief history of the events leading up to this action and its impact on technology introduction today are provided in a subsequent section. Congress requested the present study1 to

♦ Examine the potential benefits of technologies designed to increase belt use,
♦ Determine how drivers view the acceptability of the technologies, and
♦ Consider whether legislative or regulatory actions are necessary to enable their installation on passenger vehicles.

In short, congressional interest in this study is focused on an assessment of the potential for technology to increase seat belt use and the extent to which federal laws and regulations pertaining to these technologies may inhibit their introduction.