The use of seat belts in Sweden 2009

Abstract

VTI has observed seat belt use in a number of towns in Central Sweden since 1983. The observations last year were made over a total of nine days in August\u96September 2009, approximately one day per measuring point. The total number of vehicles observed was over 54,400 passenger cars and 5,900 other vehicles. When VTI commenced its measurement series in 1983, seat belt use by adult passengers in the back seat was a modest 10%. It increased in one jump to 60% when the law on seat belt use by adults in the car as a whole came into force on July 1, 1986. Today, close to 80% of all adult back seat passengers use a belt. The corresponding level for children in the back seat has been consistently about 10-20 percentage points higher. In 2009, about 95% of all children in the back seat wore a seat belt