Safety Belts and Rural Communities - 2003 Report

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Rural Americans face greater risk of being injured or killed in a traffic crash than those who live and commute in urban areas. The facts are: only 21 percent of the population live in rural areas in this country, yet 39.5 percent of the total vehicle miles traveled are on rural roads. In 2002, rural traffic crashes accounted for 60 percent of the total fatalities on our Nation’s highways.¹ A combination of known factors is responsible, including some that are unique to rural areas. For instance, rural crashes often occur in isolated areas, causing a delay in the time of discovery and in the delivery of emergency services to the victim. Other prominent factors contributing to the high rural crash and fatality rates include: alcohol involvement, high-speed crashes, low safety belt use, vehicle rollovers, and ejections. Although safety belt use in rural areas increased to 73 percent in 2002, it remains slightly lower than the national rate (about 75 percent).² The lower rate may be attributable to the lower use of safety belts among pickup truck occupants – 54 percent rural areas compared with 69 percent in urban and suburban areas.³
Along with pickup truck occupants, another high-risk group is 15-20 year olds. Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for 15 to 20 year olds. In 2002, 8,278 15- to 20-year-old drivers were involved in fatal crashes, 3,827 were killed, and an additional 324,000 were injured.⁴ More than twice as many vehicle occupants in this age group died in rural area crashes compared to urban crashes. Sixty-two percent of these young people who died in rural area crashes were unrestrained compared to 55 percent in urban areas and 54 percent of the total for all age groups.⁵ To achieve further gains in rural safety belt use, campaigns will need to focus more directly on rural communities and among these high-risk groups within those communities.

Rural Communities Are At Risk

• In 2002, 25,849 people died in motor vehicle crashes in rural areas.⁶
  
• The motor vehicle fatality rate in rural areas is more than double the fatality rate in urban areas. In 2002, the fatality rate in rural areas was 2.3 fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles traveled (VMT) vs. 1.0 fatality per 100 million VMT in urban areas.⁷
  
• In 2002, more fatal occupants were ejected from the vehicle in fatal rural crashes compared to fatal urban crashes.⁸
  
  

  Percent Fatal Passenger Vehicle Occupant Ejections in 2002 (Rural vs. Urban Fatal Crashes)
  Type of Vehicle	Rural Crashes	Urban Crashes
  All Passenger Vehicles	31%	22%
  Sport Utility Vehicles (SUVs)	48%	44%
  Pickup Trucks	41%	33%

  
  Of those rural fatalities involving ejections, 88 percent of the SUV occupants were unbelted and 93 percent of the pickup truck occupants were unbelted.⁹
  
• Over 70 percent of the fatal crashes on roadways with posted speeds of 55 MPH or higher occur in rural areas, where as approximately 70 percent of all fatal crashes on roadways with speed limits of 40 MPH or less are in urban areas.¹⁰
  
• In 2002 fatal single-vehicle crashes, over half (57 percent or 7,677), of the vehicles ran off the road in rural areas versus (38 percent or 3,299) in urban areas.¹¹
  
  Light Truck Occupants in Rural Communities — Special Challenges
  
• Fatal crashes in 2002 involved almost twice as many pickup trucks (7,544) in rural areas versus (3,390) in urban areas.¹²
  
• Occupant fatalities in pickup trucks, SUVs and vans accounted for 62 percent of the increase in total occupant fatalities in 2002.¹³
• Safety belt use in pickup trucks is lower than in any other type of passenger vehicle on the road. The latest national survey in 2003* reported 69 percent of pickup truck occupants belted, compared to 81 percent for passenger car occupants and 83 percent for vans and sport utility vehicles.¹⁴
  
• Safety belt use for all age groups ranges from 6 to 15 percentage points lower in pickup trucks than in other passenger vehicles.¹⁵
  
• Safety belt use in pickup trucks is considerably lower in rural areas (54 percent) compared to urban and suburban areas (69 percent).* By comparison, safety belt use in other vehicles is much higher and more consistent in all three areas: for SUVs and vans: 72, 79, and 78 percent respectively for urban, suburban, and rural areas; and for passenger cars: 72, 78, and 79 percent.¹⁶
  
• NHTSA focus group studies of young male pickup truck drivers in rural areas indicated there are numerous obstacles to overcome in convincing these drivers to buckle up. Such obstacles include: the false belief that being unbelted in a crash is actually safer than being belted; social norms that discourage belt use; a fatalistic view of life; feeling safer in their truck versus a passenger vehicle; and the belief that wearing a safety belt is a personal choice and should not be mandated by law.¹⁷
  
• Rollover crashes occur most often in SUVs, followed by pickup trucks, and are most prevalent in rural areas.
  
  

  2002 Fatal Rollover Crashes
  Type of Vehicle	Percent Rural	Percent Urban
  SUV	64%	55%
  Pickup Truck	48%	34%
  Van	37%	25%
  Passenger Car	28%	16%

  
  Of the rural fatalities that experienced rollovers, 79 percent of the pickup truck occupants were unbelted and 68 percent of the SUV occupants were unbelted.¹⁸
  
• In 2002, there were 91 fatalities as a result of passengers riding in the cargo areas of pickup trucks (down from 130 in 2001). Of these fatalities, 70 occupants (77 percent) were on rural roadways.¹⁹