300-Word News Conference Story

Christina Collinge

COM 3330/04

April 22, 2011

300-Word News Conference Story

Increase in Seat Belt Usage, Decrease in Motor Vehicle Injuries

     CDC’s release of Vital Signs on Non-Fatal Motor Vehicle Occupant Injuries in 2009 and Seat Belt use in 2008 among adults 18 and above in the United States report shows a substantial increase of people wearing seat belts, resulting in less injuries and deaths from motor vehicle accidents.

      This Vital Signs study came with good news: wearing a seat belt on every trip has become the norm in the United States. Overall, seat belt use has reached an all time high in 2008 of 85 percent and there are seven states that have reached an astonishing 90 percent seat belt use.

     Each state has different laws regarding seat belt use. New Hampshire does not have a mandatory seat belt law, and all of the other states have primary and secondary laws. Primary laws and secondary laws relate to whether or not you are required to wear a seat belt in the front versus the back seat.

     States with primary enforcement laws has an overall 88 percent seat belt use, and states with secondary enforcement laws has an overall 79 percent seat belt use.

          “We cannot afford to continue to lose the money and lives that are being lost to motor vehicle crashes. Seat belt use is the most effective method to reduce the risk of injury or death and it protects drivers and passengers, reducing the risk being killed by about half,” CDC Director Dr. Thomas Frieden said.

     Motor vehicle deaths are and remain the leading cause of death in the United States among young people age 5 to 34. New studies, like this one, have shown much progress, but Frieden said that we still have a ways to go.