Is Effective Enforcement of Seatbelt Law Helpful in Reduction of Road Crash Fatalities: An Exploratory Empirical Analysis using Aggregate Data
Impact of Seatbelt Law Enforcement on Crash Fatalities
Keywords:
Road Crash Fatalities, Seatbelt Law Enforcement, Ordered Probit ModelAbstract
The risk of road traffic crashes (RTCs) has enhanced due to growing motorization worldwide. In addition to other road safety countermeasures, enforcing regulation on key risk factors like seatbelt use is critical in reducing road crash fatalities (RCFs) and road crash injuries (RCIs). In the present study, an ordered probit model is estimated to explore effectiveness of enforcement level of seatbelt law at global level using data from World Health Organization (2013) and International Road Federation (2012). In this study, the enforcement of seatbelt law is categorized into four levels including very low, low, medium and high. The outcomes of the estimated model revealed that high level of seatbelt enforcement is in inverse association with the number of RCFs per thousand registered vehicles. Factors which increase the probability of high level seatbelt law enforcement include; availability of training in emergency medicine for doctors, legislation on cell phone use while driving, the existence of funded national road safety lead agency, and existence of national or sub-national policy for promoting walking and cycling. Study results provide a preliminary insight on significance of seatbelt enforcement and associated road safety countermeasures.
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