Traffic Tech #304: Safety Belt Use Estimate for Native American “Tribal Reservations” Subject to Tribal Law and Tribal Traffic Enforcement

The objective was a sample from each area at a rate of approximately 1 in 4 reservations or one reservation per 30,000 population. The planned sample included 18 reservations with 150 sites on these reservations. However, the Navajo reservation in the Southwest, which has 22 percent of the total Native American population, did not permit safety belt observations to be made in its territory; a second reservation also objected. As a result, data was collected from 120 sites on 16 tribal reservations.

Safety belt use at tribal reservations subject to tribal law and tribal traffic law enforcement was observed between September and November 2004, except for one reservation where observations were done in February 2005. Overall, 44 percent of the vehicles were cars, 31 percent were pickups, 14 percent were SUVs, and 10 percent were vans. Fifty-eight percent of the drivers were male, 38 percent were female and the sex of 3 percent could not be determined. Fifty-three percent of the passengers were female, 37 percent were male, and the sex of 10 percent of the passengers could not be determined. Belt use could be coded for 90 percent of the drivers and 83 percent of the passengers.

For the tribal reservations subject to tribal law and tribal traffic law enforcement, excluding the Navajo, the overall safety belt use rate was 55.4 percent. There was a very high variation in belt use across reservations, ranging from a low of 8.8 percent to a high of 84.8 percent.

There were significant differences in belt use by vehicle type and occupant sex for drivers and passengers. Rates were higher for cars (58.8%), SUVs (62.1%) and vans (57.5%) and much lower for pickup trucks (48.1%).

Males were less likely to use safety belts than females, 52.3 percent vs. 60.3 percent. Drivers were somewhat more likely to be belted, at 56.6 percent, than passengers at 51.3 percent were. The lowest overall belt use rate was for male passengers in pickups, at just 39.1 percent. The highest rate was for female drivers of SUVs, 67.7 percent belted.

Belt use also varied consistently with road type. Within towns on collector roads, overall, belt use was 59.0 percent, while rates on more rural between-town arterials was 51 percent.

Three of the areas had multiple reservations. The Northern Plains area had the five lowest belt use rates and averaged just 27.6 percent belt use across all five. Great Lakes and Northwest had the highest belt use; three of the four reservations in those two areas had the highest individual belt use rates observed.

Of the five reservations in the Southwest, three had moderate belt use figures, while the other two had rates above 75 percent, among the highest for tribal reservations.

Another indication of belt use is the kind of safety belt law. There are two kinds of belt use laws that may affect use rates: the safety belt law of the reservation itself and the safety belt law of the State in which the tribal reservation is located. Data were examined in both ways. Nine reservations had primary safety belt laws; in them, 68.6 percent of vehicle occupants were belted By comparison, 3 tribal reservations had secondary belt laws; they averaged 53.2 percent belt use. For the 4 reservations with no belt use laws of any kind, only 26.4 percent of the vehicle occupants were belted.

In addition, 9 reservations were located in States with primary belt use laws. Those 9 reservations were the 9 with the best use rates; they averaged 72.8 percent belted occupants. The remaining 7 reservations, in States with secondary belt use laws, were the lowest-usage reservations. They averaged just 33.3 percent buckled occupants.
       

Overall, safety belt use in tribal reservations subject to tribal law and tribal traffic law enforcement varies greatly. The recorded figures ranged from less than 10 percent to almost 85 percent, a difference so large as to make it unmistakable that different reservations are fundamentally different in their approach to and success at encouraging safety belt use.

NHTSA is funding two initiatives to raise the belt use on tribal reservations. First, a law enforcement liaison has been hired by the BIA Indian Highway Safety Program to promote tribal law enforcement support for occupant protection laws and increasing enforcement efforts, in conjunction with NHTSA’s Click It or Ticket mobilizations and on-going traffic safety enforcement efforts. Second, the BIA will conduct a demonstration project to develop, test, and evaluate program strategies that can be used in grant solicitations to fund occupant protection projects in Indian Country. This model program will identify the best mix of activities that have the greatest potential to work in tribal communities to increase safety belt use.

The limitations of this study include the nonparticipation of the Navajo reservation, which represents almost a quarter of the population of the tribal reservations subject to tribal law and tribal traffic law enforcement.

For a copy of Safety Belt Use Estimate for Native American Tribal Reservations write to the Office of Research and Technology, NHTSA, NTI-130, 400 Seventh Street, SW., Washington DC 20590, send a fax to 202-366-7096, or download from www.nhtsa.dot.gov. Linda Cosgrove was the contract manager.