Safety Belt Use and its Related Factors among Drivers and Occupants of Light Motor Vehicles in Southern Iran: Observation Results

Mortality caused by traffic collisions is considered as the leading cause of years of potential life lost and the third cause of death in Iran. Wearing a seat belt is also one of the most effective ways to reduce mortality caused by such accidents. Thus, the purpose of this study was to determine the rate of seat belt use in southern Iran.The present study was a cross-sectional analysis conducted in morning and evening rounds from October to December 2017 within nine locations of streets in the city of Jahrom (Fars Province, Iran) comprised of three groups of downtown main streets, suburban main streets, and highways as the appropriate representatives of the city roads. To this end, an observation method was used to estimate seat belt use rate and its related factors. In this study, 3456 motor vehicles were observed in which 60.9% of drivers and 37.32% of front-seat occupants had their seat belts on. Women were also wearing seat belts significantly more than men in each of the two groups (p<0.05). Besides, there was a significant relationship between the rate of seat belt use by drivers and that by front-seat occupants (p<0.001). Moreover, the use of seat belt by drivers was related to front-seat occupants’ gender; (p<0.001). The overall average rate of using seat belts for drivers and front-seat occupants was 52.02 % which was very low according to the mandatory law of seat belt use and also much far from its ideal rate (over 90%).