Young people – predominantly males – are being urged to ‘belt up in the back’, as new data highlights the staggering number killed in car crashes not wearing their seatbelts.
Recent analysis by The AA Charitable Trust shows almost half (43%) of young passengers (17-29) who die in car crashes are not belted up.
Young, male car passengers are twice as likely to die in a car crash than their female peers due to being unbelted.
The research, based on five years of car crash data where seatbelt wearing status was known, shows 68% of young passengers who die unbelted are male.
These crashes are also more likely to happen at night, with 74% of young, unbelted, passenger fatalities happening after dark.
Provisional figures show that in 2024 across Merseyside there were 14 casualties killed or seriously injured who were not wearing their seatbelt at the time of the collision.
Six of those were vehicle drivers (43%) and eight were vehicle passengers (57%). Also six of the casualties were 17–29-year-olds (43) and eight were 30+ year old (57%).
Wearing a seatbelt reduces the risk of death by around 50%, meaning up to around one quarter of all young car passenger deaths could be avoided if all young passengers put their belts on.
Every week, four young people aged 17 to 29 were either killed or seriously injured on our roads when not wearing a seat belt. (Data on latest year of full data – 2023).
In 2024, Merseyside Police issued 3,066 tickets for drivers and or passengers not wearing their seat belt.
THE FACTS:
• In a crash, you’re twice as likely to killed or seriously injured if you don’t wear a seat belt.
• Younger drivers and passengers have the lowest seat belt-wearing rates, combined with the highest accident rate.
• People are less likely to use seat belts on short or familiar journeys – putting them at serious risk of injury in a crash.
THE LAW:
• Drivers and passengers who fail to wear seat belts in the front and back of vehicles are breaking the law.
• For those aged 14 and over, failure to wear a seat belt could result in an on-the-spot fine of £100. If prosecuted, the maximum fine is £500.
Cllr Dan Barrington, Liverpool City Council Cabinet Member for Transport and Connectivity, said: “It is an utter tragedy that young people are dying as passengers and drivers because they have failed to put their seatbelt on. It’s such a quick and easy thing to do – and it could save your own life or the lives of the people around you.”
Inspector Gavin Dixon of Merseyside Police, Roads Policing Department, said: “Merseyside Police work really hard to try and encourage everyone to wear their seatbelts in all forms of transport.
“The figures speak for themselves; you are more likely to die in a collision if you don’t wear a seatbelt. As with mobile phone enforcement, we are constantly using new and innovative ways to catch people who choose not to wear their seatbelt and risk their own and their passengers’ lives.”
The analysis by The AA Charitable Trust can be viewed here https://www.theaa.com/about-us/newsroom/aa-charitable-trust-launches-seatbelt-campaign
