Page 32 - The Magazine of AAA Ohio Auto Club – November 2020

Are You Buckling Up?
The number of motor vehicle fatalities has been trending down for decades, driven in large part by more people wearing seat belts. In 2004, more than 19,000 occupants killed in car crashes were unrestrained at the time, compared to 12,426 in 2018. While data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicates that just 6.3% of U.S. adults don’t wear a seat belt all (or most) of the time, unrestrained occupants still account for nearly half of individuals killed in car crashes, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Despite improvements in restraint use overall, rates vary widely by gender. According to the CDC, men are twice as likely as women to report not wearing a seat belt (8.5% compared to 4.2%). Men also are about
2.5 times as likely as women to die in car crashes, based on traffic fatality data collected by the NHTSA from 2016-2018. Among all occupants killed in car crashes, men are about three times as likely as women to have not been wearing a seat belt.
Location also plays a role in the widespread adoption of seat belts. In general, states with large rural populations are more likely to report large proportions of residents not wearing seat belts. For example, adults in New Hampshire and South Dakota — which have some of the smallest urban populations — are more than twice as likely as average to report not wearing seat belts (17.2% and 15.0%, respectively). By contrast, California, Oregon and Washington — where more
than eight in 10 residents live in urban areas — report the highest rates of restraint use in the country.
To find which metropolitan areas’ residents are least likely to wear seat belts, researchers at CoPilot, a car shopping app, analyzed restraint use statistics from the CDC’s Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. They also analyzed how many unrestrained occupants were killed in car crashes in each metro area from 2016 to 2018.
30 | AAA MAGAZINE
AAA-Approved
Driving Schools
BUTLER COUNTY
Drive-Rite Driving School, Fairfield
513-939-1222 • drive-riteschool.com
CRAWFORD COUNTY
Classic Driving Academy, Galion
740-386-2929 • classicdrivingacademy.com
FAIRFIELD COUNTY
Carroll Lyn Driving School, Lancaster
740-654-3748 • carrolllyndrivingschool.com
MARION COUNTY
Classic Driving Academy, Marion
740-386-2929 • classicdrivingacademy.com
MEDINA COUNTY
Myers Driving Academy, Medina
330-591-9740 • myersdrivingschool.com
WAYNE COUNTY
Myers Driving Academy, Wooster
330-439-1134 • myersdrivingschool.com
ERIE COUNTY
American Driving School LLC, Sandusky
419-621-1890 • americandrivingschool.org
RICHLAND COUNTY
Superior Driving Academy, Mansfield
419-525-6192 • superiordrivingacademy.us
STARK COUNTY
330-494-6236 • myersdrivingschool.com Myers Driving Academy, North Canton
Advanced Driver Training
LICKING COUNTY
Myers Driving Academy, Canton
330-494-6236 • myersdrivingschool.com AAA-Approved
Better Ohio Teen Drivers, Hebron
614-273-3649 • betterohioteendrivers.org
AAA members receive 10% off driver education and a free teen associate membership* at any AAA Approved Driving School.
*Offer valid on new Classic associate memberships in Ohio Auto Club territory. Parent/guardian must be an existing AAA member to redeem.
Photo: iStock/ Antonio_Diaz