Only one in four drivers in large cities use seat belts. These are the data of the annual survey “The level of use of seat belts among drivers in Ukrainian cities in 2020”, conducted by the NGO “Vision Zero” in conjunction with the Center for Democracy and the Rule of Law in the campaign “For Safe Roads”.
“The level of fastening today is 26.04%, and this leads to those fatal accidents that could have been avoided by using seat belts,” the statement said.
Experts point out that the reasons are social myths and prejudices that motivate drivers not to fasten, as well as extremely low fines – but the situation can be changed for the better.
It is noted that in all 24 cities surveyed, more than half of drivers (from 52% to 85%) do not fasten during the trip. Most often, this figure is 70-80%, such indicators have 12 studied cities.
Observations show that the results are slightly better in Kyiv, where 48.2% of drivers use seat belts. The top 5 leaders in terms of fastening also included Lviv (40.2%), Cherkasy (34.5%), Dnipro (33.2%) and Vinnytsia (33.1%). Chernivtsi, Severodonetsk and Kropyvnytskyi became the anti-leaders of the rating, where less than 18% of drivers fasten.
“Such behavior of Ukrainian drivers threatens their lives and health, because without a seat belt, the risks of serious consequences in an accident increase,” experts say. The World Health Organization estimates that a fastened belt could save 50% of fatal accident victims.
Participants of the “For Safe Roads” campaign conducted research in October 2020 in 24 cities (21 regional centers of Ukraine, Kyiv, Severodonetsk, Luhansk region and Mariupol, Donetsk region). This study has been conducted annually since 2017. To do this, we used the method of observation: so instructed campaign volunteers collected information about 33,701 drivers. All of them should be fastened behind the wheel: the use of a belt for drivers and passengers is a direct requirement of the Traffic Rules.
The number of fatal accidents in Ukraine has increased – for 9 months of this year compared to the same period last year by 4.9% – to 2.4 thousand. In total for 9 months in Ukraine there were 118.8 thousand accidents. This is 3.6% more than in January-September 2019.
