As in past years, the Buckle Up America (BUA) campaign has continued to make strides in increasing safety belt and child safety seat use. Throughout the country, safety belt use rates rose to 75 percent in 2002, 2 percentage points higher than in 2001. In States that had primary enforcement laws, the average safety belt use rate rose for the first time to 80 percent.

This increase in the national belt use rate translates into an estimated additional 6 million safety belt users. Especially noteworthy is the increase in safety belt use among African Americans. From 2000 to 2002, their safety belt use increased 8 percentage points from 69 to 77 percent. Our BUA campaign partners in the African American community deserve special acknowledgement for their hard work and commitment to helping achieve this increase.

Restraint use among young children reached record levels in 2002. A 99-percent use rate for infants and a 94-percent use rate for toddlers were noted in our National Occupant Protection Use Survey. To maintain these high rates, we continue to support regional and State efforts to increase the availability of permanent child passenger safety seat inspection stations and the number of certified child passenger safety technicians to conduct inspections. With the publishing of A National Strategy: Increasing Booster Seat Use for 4- to 8-year-old Children in October 2002, we look forward to increased occupant protection usage rates for all child passengers.

Also during 2002, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) was able to measure the effectiveness of the BUA campaign’s full Click It or Ticket mobilization model that included paid media. Our research showed an average safety belt use increase of 8.6 percentage points among States that implemented the full mobilization model. This again reinforces one of the campaign’s fundamental tenets that highly publicized enforcement, in combination with paid media, can achieve a substantial increase in a State’s overall safety belt use rate.

With a commitment from the Bush Administration to achieve a 78-percent usage rate in 2003, I encourage our many public- and private-sector partners to continue their support of the BUA campaign and I applaud them for their past efforts. Together we can continue to save lives on America’s highways and share in the knowledge that we are contributing to the strength and well-being of our country.

Norman Y. Mineta
Secretary of Transportation