TY - JOUR PY - 1998// TI - Evaluation of Primary Safety Belt Laws in California, Louisiana and Georgia JO - Annual proceedings of the Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine A1 - Ulmer, R. A1 - Preusser, C A1 - Preusser, David F. A1 - Cosgrove, L SP - 261 EP - 275 VL - 42 IS - N2 - This study evaluated three states that changed to primary enforcement of safety belt laws, collecting statewide seat belt observation data for several years and conducting monthly seat belt observations for 6 months after passage of the primary law in 6 California cities, 5 Louisiana cities, and 5 Georgia cities (average 1,000-6,000 vehicles a month); monthly motorist surveys at DMVs for 6 months in these sites (n = 7,061); focus groups with law enforcement officers and supervisors in each site; and citations issued locally and statewide for several years. Observed belt use increased substantially in California (+18 percentage points) and in Louisiana (+16 percentage points). Smaller increases were seen in Georgia initially, but grew the following year. In each state, most motorists understood that they could be stopped by a police officer for a belt use violation alone. In Louisiana and Georgia, there was no evidence that one racial group was targeted for enforcement as compared to any other racial group.

Language: en

LA - en SN - 1540-0360 UR - http://dx.doi.org/ ID - ref1 ER -