Study: Indians' Seat Belt Use Off Average
Posted on: Thursday, 6 October 2005, 21:00 CDT
By KEN THOMAS
WASHINGTON - Barely half of the nation's American Indian motorists buckle up on the road, a figure that falls well below the national average.
About 55 percent wear seat belts, and the use rate varies widely among tribes, according to the study Thursday by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Interior Department's Bureau of Indian Affairs.
The national average is 82 percent.
Motor vehicle injuries are the leading cause of death for American Indians in the continental United States, the government said, and about three-fourths of those killed in crashes were not wearing seat belts.
"We must find a way to help Native American leaders bridge large gaps in safety belt use and, ultimately, save lives," said Jacqueline Glassman, NHTSA's deputy administrator.
The study, the first of its kind, found that belt use ranged from 8.8 percent to 84.8 percent among sampled reservations. Researchers did not release belt use rates for individual reservations surveyed.
Among 560 federally recognized tribes, 180 reservations can set and enforce their own safety belt laws, the government said.
Reservations with primary seat belt laws, which allow police to stop motorists who fail to use seat belts, had a 68 percent use rate. The rate was 53.2 percent on reservations with secondary laws, in which police can issue a seat belt violation only if a driver is stopped for another infraction.
Only about a quarter of motorists were belted on reservations with no seat belt laws.
Women were more likely to wear seat belts, with 60.3 percent using the belts compared with 52.3 percent for men.
Dennis King, the health and human services coordinator for the Oglala Sioux Tribe in South Dakota, said his tribe has tried to stress the importance of seat belts through road signs and by airing a public safety radio program on Tuesday mornings.
Unemployment is 80 percent on the reservation, so a $50 ticket for not wearing a seat belt leaves its mark. "It's a hefty fine on the reservation," King said.
Data was collected from 16 tribal reservations between September 2004 and November 2004 and in February 2005 on one reservation.
Researchers sought to conduct part of the study in the Navajo Nation, which spans parts of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah, but the tribe declined to participate. Despite the lack of data from the nation's largest reservation, NHTSA spokesman Rae Tyson said the agency believes the data is representative of belt use among American Indians.
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On the Net:
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration: http://www.nhtsa.gov/
Source: Associated Press/AP Online
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