Benefits of Seat Belt Use

• Seat belts, when used, reduce the risk of fatal injury to front-seat passenger car occupants by 45% and light-truck occupants by 60%.
  
  
• Research has found that lap/shoulder seat belts, when used, reduce the risk of fatal injury to front-seat passenger car occupants by 45% and the risk of moderate-to-critical injury by 50%. For light-truck occupants, seat belts reduce the risk of fatal injury by 60% and moderate-to-critical injury by 65%.
  
  
• Ejection from the vehicle is one of the most injurious events that can happen to a person in a crash. In fatal crashes in 2009, 77% of passenger vehicle occupants who were totally ejected from the vehicle were killed. Seat belts are effective in preventing total ejections: only 1% of the occupants reported to have been using restraints were totally ejected, compared with 31% of the unrestrained occupants.
  
  
• Among passenger vehicle occupants age 5 and older, seat belts saved an estimated 12,713 lives in 2009. If all passenger vehicle occupants age 5 and older had worn seat belts, 16,401 lives (that is an additional 3,688) could have been saved in 2009.

Cumulative Estimated Number of Lives Saved by Seat Belts, 1975-2009
Source: NHTSA
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