WASHINGTON — On the eve of the annual Memorial Day crackdown on highway safety violations, seat-belt advocates are claiming progress in a multimillion-dollar campaign targeting the most hard-to-reach group, the young.
Deaths in vehicles among people ages 16 to 20 were down by 5.2 percent last year, to 5,332 from 5,625. And the Transportation Department will announce today that seat-belt use was up by 7 percent among people aged 16 to 24, and 4 percent among all age groups, after a highly visible push that began shortly before Memorial Day weekend last year.
The number of all motor vehicle deaths rose last year by 405, to a total of 43,220, but 348 of those involved motorcycles, which have no seat belts. The death rate is also being pushed up by the growing popularity of sport utility vehicles, which are more prone to roll over than cars.
Speaking about last year's death toll, the highest in more than a decade, Chuck Hurley, a spokesman for the National Safety Council, said, "It would have been about 1,000 lives more, if not for the 4 percent gain in belt use."
The federal government is spending $30 million this year on a television advertising campaign to reach "high-risk" groups, including teenagers, members of minority groups and racing enthusiasts.
The ads appear during the programs such as "Fear Factor," World Wrestling Entertainment's "Smackdown!" and major-league baseball games. On Saturday, Norman Y. Mineta, the secretary of transportation, attended a NASCAR race at the Richmond International Raceway in Virginia, where he urged fans to follow the example of the professional drivers by wearing seat belts. The actual level of seat belt use is uncertain, because the Transportation Department data is based on daytime use, when surveyors can observe people in vehicles, and does not always capture information about back-seat occupants.
The percentage of people who died in crashes while wearing seat belts is known more precisely. Belt use for teenagers who died in crashes is about 34 percent while for car occupants of all ages, it is close to 50 percent, said Hurley. But he said that the regional variation shows the potential for improvement; on the West Coast, where laws are stronger and their enforcement more vigorous, about two-thirds of the dead were belted; in Massachusetts, he said, where enforcement is not as strong, it is less than 10 percent.
The National Safety Council, which is a private group, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and several other private and government agencies jointly promote a "Click It or Ticket" campaign at Memorial Day, the unofficial start of summer, and again at Thanksgiving.
Moving the seat-belt use rate to 90 percent or higher would cut highway deaths by 3,000 to 5,000 per year, the advocates say. The Transportation Department and others have been seeking to persuade state legislatures to strengthen their laws, especially the 29 states that do not allow officers to issue a ticket for non-use of belts unless they have first pulled over the car for some other reason.