TP 2436 E
Road Safety Leaflet CL 9808 E 
November 1998 

The National Occupant Restraint Program 2001(NORP 2001) is an important element of Road Safety Vision 2001 — an ambitious partnership approved by federal, provincial and territorial Ministers of Transport to make Canada’s roads the safest in the world. The objective of NORP 2001 is to maintain or achieve seat belt usage rates of 95% for all occupants in light-duty vehicles (passenger cars, passenger vans and light-trucks). Transport Canada’s contribution to this program of monitoring seat belt usage rates in Canada is done through conducting an annual survey. The latest national survey of seat belt use took place between June 15 and June 21, 1998.

Results

For Canada as a whole, the estimated proportion of all occupants of light-duty vehicles using seat belts decreased by 0.2 percent to 88.7 percent in June 1998, down from 88.9 percent in July 1997 (see Table 1). This estimate is accurate within ± 0.8 percent 19 times out of 20 in repeated samples. Other highlights of the 1998 survey of all occupants of light-duty vehicles for individual provinces and territories (in rounded percentages) were as follows:

• Three provinces reached seat belt use of 90 percent or more, the same as last year.
• Quebec led the country with a rate of 92 percent, followed by Saskatchewan and British Columbia at an identical rate of 90 percent.
• Seat belt wearing rates for other provinces and territories were Nova Scotia and Ontario both at 89 percent; New Brunswick at 88 percent; Newfoundland at 86 percent; Manitoba at 84 percent; Prince Edward Island at 83 percent; Alberta and Yukon both at 82 percent; and the Northwest Territories at 53 percent.

In this year's survey, all 10 provinces achieved belt use rates of more than 82 percent. This level is the result of increased safety awareness by the motoring public as well as concerted efforts in the areas of policy-making, safety promotion and enforcement by the provincial governments, police forces and road safety associations.

*Note: Some jurisdictions have laws exempting certain individuals from wearing seat belts
** Light-duty vehicles include passenger cars, passenger vans and light trucks.

*Note: Some jurisdictions have laws exempting certain individuals from wearing seat belts.
** Transport Canada's first seat belt surveys in the Northwest Territories and Yukon Territory.

Light Trucks and Passenger Vans

Table 3 presents the survey results of seat belt use by type of vehicle. As in previous surveys, this year's survey distinguished passenger vans from light trucks.

The results showed that:

• The use of seat belts by all occupants was 89 percent in passenger vans and 80 percent in light trucks.
• Seat belt use by all occupants of passenger vans varied from 60 percent in Northwest Territories to 92 percent in Quebec.
• Seat belt use by all occupants of light trucks varied from 40 percent in the Northwest Territories to 92 percent in Quebec.

These two categories of vehicles accounted for 29.2 percent of the vehicles included in the survey.

*Note: Some jurisdictions have laws exempting certain individuals from wearing seat belts.
** Light-duty vehicles includes passenger cars, passenger vans and light trucks.
*** All occupants

Survey Method

The June 1998 survey was undertaken at 241 sites selected by province, road type and community size, and was comparable to the samples used in the previous belt use surveys.