Correlates of front-seat passengers' non-use of seatbelts at night

When properly worn, seatbelts can save lives. They are designed to prevent occupants from hitting objects inside their vehicle and from being ejected out of their vehicle in the event of a crash. Despite their proven effectiveness in reducing the severity of injuries, seatbelt non-use among passengers still remains a problem, especially at night. Although the factors associated with not using a seatbelt have been widely studied, research studies documenting this behavior at night are limited in the literature. The primary objective of this paper is to explore the factors related to front-seat passengers' seatbelt non-use at night using a 2015-2016 longitudinal observation survey conducted in five counties in East Tennessee. The Generalized Estimating Equation, a rigorous modeling technique, is employed for the data analysis. The findings show that front-seat passengers who are most likely to not wear seatbelts at night are males, traveling in passenger cars and pickup trucks, traveling during the first half of the year (January to June), traveling late at night (after 10 p.m) and on local streets. The findings also indicate that drivers may have the greatest influence on their accompanying passengers' seatbelt use. That is, when drivers fail to wear seatbelts at night, their accompanying front-seat passengers are more likely to fail as well. The model results show that there are many consistent correlations between the non-use of seatbelts and personal, vehicle and environmental characteristics. Accounting for these factors may be important when developing intervention strategies that promote nighttime seatbelt use.