According to The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the number of people using seatbelts and other restraint devices has gone up by 85 percent. However, this does not necessarily mean that problems with accidents involving unrestrained occupants have been eradicated. The figures are still alarming, and people have to think twice about using a seatbelt before they get on the road. The passenger vehicle restraint statistics covers all data reported in 2010.

The top three age groups that are least likely to wear a seatbelt include people aged 25 to 34 at 63 percent, 21 to 24 at 61 percent and 16 to 20 and 35 to 44 at 60 percent. They are also the groups with the highest unrestrained passenger vehicle fatalities by age. Males had the highest total fatalities at 14,265. That is 56 percent of those who were killed while driving unrestrained. On the other hand, females had 7,919 total fatalities while driving unrestrained, and this makes up 43 percent of the total. In addition, the figures say that sitting in the back seat unrestrained is not as safe as sitting in the front seat. Unrestrained passenger vehicle fatalities in the back seat are at 63 percent while there were only 50 percent in the front seat.

Moreover, 64 percent of the pickup drivers killed were unrestrained while passenger fatalities are at 68 percent. With SUVs, 57 percent of drivers were killed unrestrained while the figure stands at 64 percent for passengers. Vans and passenger cars have 47 and 44 percent fatalities for drivers and 53 percent and 46 percent for passengers respectively. On the good side, about 12,546 lives were saved when passenger vehicle occupants wearing restraints were aged five and older. However, an additional 3,341 lives could have been saved if restraints were used.

Source: Professional accident lawyers in St. Louis