Utah seat belt use drops to five-year low
Nov 22, 2021, 4:21 PM
FILE: seatbelt
SALT LAKE CITY – The Utah Highway Patrol released new statics that showed the number of Utah drivers using their seat belts dropped from 90.2% in 2019 to 88.2% this year.
That’s the lowest use rate since 2016.
It’s been a deadly year on Utah roads with 282 lives lost already in 2021.
The Highway Patrol said 45% of people killed in crashes over the past five years were not wearing a seatbelt.
“It’s staggering to think that 45% of our fatalities are people who are not buckled up,” said Sgt. Cameron Roden, of UHP “people who would have taken the simple act to put on a seatbelt on a good majority of those people, would still be with us.”
Officers will be out in force through Thanksgiving weekend in search of people who are not buckled up as part of the holiday “Click it or Ticket” campaign.
That means law enforcement agencies across Utah will work more than 300 additional shifts to stop and educate drivers and passengers who aren’t using their seatbelts.
