For whom didn’t it click? A study of the non-use of seat belts in motor vehicle fatalities in New Zealand

There is an increased risk of death or serious injury for occupants who did not wear a seat belt in a crash. In New Zealand, between 2006 and 2016, the non-use of seat belts accounted for 19-30% of the overall motor vehicle road deaths, and this figure shows no sign of decreasing. It is important to better understand the contextual factors associated with crashes where seat belts are not worn, so that more relevant and effective road safety interventions can be designed and implemented. The aim of this research was to determine the profiles for seat belt non-users who were killed in motor vehicle crashes in New Zealand between 2011 and 2015. An in-depth analysis of 200 fatalities where seat belts were not worn (186 crash cases) was carried out following a Safe System framework, using NZ Police reports. Following this, a Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA) developed five profiles of vehicle occupants who were killed in crashes where seat belts were not worn. While the stereotypical ‘young risky’ males were an important group, a range of other people and contexts emerged: ‘driving for work’; ‘elderly and retired’; ‘overseas passengers’; and ‘people driving in rural settings’. This has implications for tailored road safety interventions, as a variety of motivations and influences are likely to be at play, depending on the people involved.