Close to half of people killed in crashes on U.S. roadways were not wearing a seatbelt or other safety restraint, according to the most recent national crash data. Despite decades of evidence showing seatbelts save lives and reduce serious injuries, millions of drivers and passengers do not buckle up on every trip, often with fatal consequences.
Vehicle crashes are a leading cause of death in the United States, with nearly 37,000 people killed in crashes in 2025.
According to 2024 data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the nationwide seatbelt use rate was estimated at 91.3%. Usage ranged from a high of 97.5% in California to a low of 73.4% in Wyoming. Seatbelt use in South Dakota registered at 88.6%.
According to the South Dakota Office of Highway Safety, 55% of South Dakota traffic fatalities in 2022 were unrestrained. Between 2013 and 2022, 579 people died in South Dakota crashes while not wearing a seatbelt.
“Every day, people get into their vehicle assuming they’ll arrive safely. The tragedy is that many of those who die in crashes never thought they needed a seatbelt for that trip,” said Shawn Steward, Public and Government Affairs Manager for AAA Club Alliance in South Dakota. “A seatbelt takes seconds to buckle, but it can be the difference between walking away and never coming home.”
Why Seatbelts Matter
NHTSA estimates that using lap and shoulder seatbelts reduces the risk of:
- Front seat occupant deaths in passenger cars by 45% and light trucks by 60%
- Front seat occupant moderate to critical injuries in passenger cars by 50% and light trucks by 65%
Seatbelts help prevent occupants from being ejected from the vehicle, an event associated with high risk of injury and death. Compared with occupants who are not ejected from vehicles, occupants who are ejected in non roll-over crashes are nearly twice as likely to die, and those who are ejected in rollover crashes are 4 times more likely to die (NHTSA, 2010).
Seatbelts work in cooperation with vehicle airbags. Airbags are neither a replacement for nor do they reduce the need for wearing seatbelts. Seatbelts are also designed to manage forces on the body. Worn properly, seatbelts are designed to spread crash forces across the stronger bony parts of the body, including the shoulder, rib cage and pelvis.
Unbelted occupants can put other people in the vehicle at risk. In a frontal crash, drivers and front-seat passengers are at increased risk of injury from unbelted back-seat passengers, and in a side-impact crash, passengers sitting adjacent to unbelted passengers are at increased risk of injury.
NHTSA estimates that seatbelts saved a total of 457,578 lives between 1968 and 2019 (Kahane & Simons, 2024).
Who is least likely to wear a seatbelt?
There are a variety of reasons people do not wear seatbelts, including being in a rush or forgetting, never being taught to make it an every-trip routine, not perceiving the danger in their area or type of vehicle, or simply by choice.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) data, we can see trends in lower seatbelt usage:
- Age. Among young adults 18 to 34 killed while riding in passenger vehicles in 2024, 59% were completely unrestrained — one of the highest percentages for all age groups.
- Gender. Men are less likely to wear seatbelts than women. Men make up the majority of those killed in traffic crashes. Men are also overrepresented in unrestrained passenger vehicle occupant fatalities with 53% of men and 40% of women dying without a seatbelt in 2024.
- State Laws. Seatbelt use is lower in states with secondary enforcement seatbelt laws or no seatbelt laws (90% in 2022) compared to states with primary enforcement laws (92% in 2022).
Misconceptions Lead to Lower Seatbelt Use
- Vehicle type: There may be a belief among some who drive and ride in pickup trucks that their large vehicles will protect them better than other vehicles in a crash. The numbers say otherwise: 59% of pickup truck occupants who were killed in 2024 were not buckled. That’s compared to 47% of passenger car occupants who were not wearing seatbelts when they were killed.
- Seating position: Too many people wrongly believe they are safe in the back seat unrestrained. Forty-seven percent of all front-seat passenger vehicle occupants killed in crashes in 2024 were unrestrained, but 58% of those killed in back seats were unrestrained.
- Rural versus urban locations: People who live in non-metropolitan areas are less likely to wear seatbelts than those in metropolitan areas. Rural residents might believe their crash exposure is low, but in 2024, there were nearly the same number of passenger vehicle occupant fatalities in rural locations as there were in urban areas. Out of those fatalities, 50% of those killed in the rural locations were known to be not wearing their seatbelts, compared to 47% in urban locations.
Impact of Primary vs. Secondary Seatbelt Laws
Currently, 36 states and the District of Columbia have primary seatbelt laws, and 13 states have secondary laws requiring adult front-seat occupants to use seatbelts. Primary enforcement laws permit police officers to stop and cite motorists solely for not using a seatbelt. In states with secondary enforcement, police can only enforce the law if the motorist has been pulled over for another violation first. New Hampshire is the only state without a seatbelt law.
States with primary enforcement laws tend to have higher observed seatbelt use and a lower percentage of unrestrained deaths.
South Dakota’s seatbelt law requires seat belts for the driver and front seat passengers as a secondary offense. However, all occupants 17 years old and under, must wear a seat belt as a primary offense.
What Can Be Done to Increase Seatbelt Use and Effectiveness?
- Use a seatbelt in the front and back seats on every trip, no matter how short.
- Require everyone in the car to buckle up, including those in the back seat.
- Parents should insist teen drivers and their passengers always wear a seatbelt
- Make sure children are properly buckled up in a car seat, booster seat, or seatbelt, whichever is appropriate for their age, height, and weight.
- States can adopt proven strategies for increasing seatbelt and child safety seat use, which include:
o Primary enforcement seatbelt laws, which have been shown to increase use and reduce deaths compared with secondary enforcement laws.
o Seatbelt laws that apply to everyone in the vehicle, not just those in the front seat.
“On November 14th – National Seatbelt Day – and every day, AAA urges every person traveling in a vehicle to buckle their seatbelts and have children in an appropriate child safety seat – every trip, long or short, in the city or the country,” Steward said. “You never know when a crash can occur, and seatbelts give you the best chance to avoid serious injury or death.”