ANN ARBOR—Roughly one in three Michigan children do not use safety belts, despite increased public awareness of the benefits of buckling up, say University of Michigan researchers.

In a new study of safety belt use by children 15 and under, researchers David W. Eby, Lidia P. Kostyniuk and Jonathon M. Vivoda of the U-M Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI) found that seat belt use is about 66 percent for this age group throughout the state. Although nearly 93 percent of kids under age 4 use either a safety belt or child safety seat, only about 58 percent of children ages 4-15 wear seat belts, they say.

“Michigan has a significant portion of its child population riding unrestrained in vehicles,” Eby says. “Fortunately, the state has received funding to undertake a special enforcement program intended to reduce child injuries caused by traffic crashes, including high-profile, zero-tolerance enforcement of safety belt and child seat laws for young passengers.”

According to the U-M study, children’s rates of safety belt use are higher if the driver of the vehicle in which the kids are riding also is wearing a safety belt. About 81 percent of children with belted drivers buckle up, but only about a third of those riding with unrestrained drivers use seat belts (this latter figure falls further still to 20 percent among children ages 4-15).

Eby and colleagues also found that safety belt use was lower for children sitting in the center of a seat than for those sitting next to a window. For example, about 42 percent of children in the center of the back seat of a passenger car or the second row of seats in a van, minivan or sport-utility vehicle (SUV) wear safety belts, compared with a rate of more than 60 percent for kids sitting on the left or right side near a window (for front-seat child passengers, the rates are 26 percent and 67 percent, respectively).

In addition, the researchers say that children riding in vans, minivans and SUVs (about 75 percent) are more likely to wear safety belts than those in cars and pickup trucks (about 60 percent).

“This finding was surprising because passenger car safety belt use in Michigan is usually about the same as belt use in vans, minivans and SUVs,” Eby says. “Without further research though, we cannot offer a definitive explanation.”

Finally, unlike previous studies that have shown clear gender differences in safety belt use for adult drivers and passengers, the researchers found virtually no difference in use among boys and girls.

“The lack of a sex difference shows that parents and guardians do not discriminate by sex when they decide to restrain the child occupant,” Eby says. “It is interesting to note that for occupants 16 years of age and older—who are more likely to make the decision, themselves, to use or not use safety belts—use is significantly lower for males.”

Eby and colleagues say that their study provides a baseline for statewide assessment of child safety restraint-use programs and may help in the design of public education and information programs to increase belt use.

Data for the study was collected by observing the safety belt use of children in vehicles arriving and departing sites such as schools, fast-food restaurants, skating rinks, malls, movie theaters and recreation centers. More than 2,600 children were observed at 128 sites located in Michigan’s 28 most populous counties.