SA passengers 'don't buckle up'

2009-01-12 17:07

Johannesburg - Only four of every 10 car passengers in South Africa wear seatbelts, a new survey has found.

"The occupant most likely to wear a belt is the driver," said the Automobile Association of SA which co-sponsored the study.

Spokesperson Rob Handfield-Jones said the results of the survey, conducted in December last year, were in line with those of a similar study three months earlier.

The latest survey was done in six different provinces. A total of 3 831 vehicles were inspected. It included minibus taxis and heavy vehicles.

Handfield-Jones said the portion of drivers buckling up had declined from 64% in September to 56% in December last year.

"The total wearing rate for all occupants surveyed dropped from 56% to 40%, while the wearing rate for front passengers dropped from 41% to 30%," he said.

"Of the 628 taxis surveyed, only 11% of drivers were strapped in, and only two percent of their front and rear passengers."

About 20% of heavy vehicle drivers and six percent of their passengers were wearing seatbelts.

The pilot study found that police drivers were four percent less likely to be wearing their seatbelts than civilian drivers surveyed.

- SAPA