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 Canadas 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 Canadas 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.
Table
1: Percentage
of all Occupants Wearing Seat Belts in Light-Duty Vehicles**
Estimates of seat belt use from annual surveys 1992-1998* |
Province / Territory |
1992
June
(%) |
1993
June
(%) |
1994
June
(%) |
1996
June
(%) |
1997
July
(%) |
1998
June
(%) |
Newfoundland |
90.4 |
94.5 |
93.6 |
91.9 |
92.4 |
86.4 |
Prince
Edward Island |
76.9 |
77.8 |
84.5 |
87.5 |
82.6 |
82.7 |
Nova
Scotia |
82.1 |
83.5 |
83.2 |
88.2 |
87.1 |
88.5 |
New
Brunswick |
77.9 |
82.1 |
84.9 |
86.6 |
86.5 |
87.9 |
Quebec |
86.0 |
88.8 |
89.8 |
90.3 |
91.7 |
92.3 |
Ontario |
76.6 |
79.4 |
86.3 |
89.9 |
89.2 |
89.1 |
Manitoba |
76.5 |
80.2 |
82.6 |
82.4 |
84.8 |
84.4 |
Saskatchewan |
88.7 |
89.4 |
87.7 |
89.6 |
91.7 |
89.7 |
Alberta |
80.3 |
81.0 |
83.1 |
85.1 |
83.7 |
82.4 |
British
Columbia |
87.1 |
86.4 |
88.3 |
88.7 |
89.4 |
89.7 |
Yukon |
60.1 |
72.8 |
68.2 |
81.2 |
83.4 |
82.1 |
Northwest
Territories |
68.7 |
51.5 |
67.4 |
54.9 |
64.3 |
52.6 |
Canada |
81.4 |
83.4 |
86.8 |
88.7 |
88.9 |
88.7 |
*Note: Some jurisdictions have laws exempting certain
individuals from wearing seat belts
** Light-duty vehicles include passenger cars, passenger vans and light trucks.
Table
2: Percentage of Passenger Car Drivers Wearing Seat Belts
Estimates of seat belt use from annual
surveys 1990-1998* |
Province/ Territory |
1990
Oct.
(%) |
1991
June
(%) |
1991
Oct.
(%) |
1992
June
(%) |
1992
Oct.
(%) |
1993
June
(%) |
1993
Oct.
(%) |
1994
June
(%) |
1994
Oct.
(%) |
1996
June
(%) |
1997
July
(%) |
1998
June
(%) |
Newfoundland |
84.2 |
91.6 |
90.6 |
93.9 |
94.8 |
96.7 |
97.5 |
95.7 |
95.7 |
94.3 |
95.2 |
90.8 |
Prince
Edward Island |
65.2 |
74.7 |
78.7 |
81.8 |
81.4 |
83.4 |
81.5 |
90.2 |
90.5 |
91.8 |
88.0 |
88.0 |
Nova
Scotia |
83.4 |
83.9 |
86.3 |
85.5 |
86.3 |
87.4 |
86.3 |
87.0 |
90.5 |
91.2 |
90.1 |
91.2 |
New
Brunswick |
76.9 |
81.9 |
83.2 |
81.3 |
81.3 |
85.6 |
86.2 |
88.9 |
92.1 |
89.5 |
91.9 |
91.8 |
Quebec |
93.5 |
92.4 |
92.8 |
91.3 |
91.8 |
92.6 |
92.6 |
92.1 |
94.4 |
93.2 |
93.8 |
94.7 |
Ontario |
71.6 |
79.7 |
83.2 |
80.5 |
84.1 |
84.0 |
83.6 |
88.8 |
91.0 |
92.3 |
91.4 |
91.5 |
Manitoba |
73.4 |
79.4 |
79.9 |
81.6 |
80.2 |
82.9 |
83.3 |
86.1 |
85.8 |
85.0 |
87.3 |
87.6 |
Saskatchewan |
91.5 |
91.5 |
90.6 |
93.9 |
93.8 |
93.7 |
95.4 |
92.7 |
92.7 |
94.0 |
93.9 |
94.1 |
Alberta |
88.1 |
84.4 |
83.2 |
86.3 |
84.8 |
86.6 |
88.3 |
87.8 |
88.5 |
89.8 |
87.5 |
87.8 |
British
Columbia |
88.3 |
87.0 |
84.9 |
91.1 |
90.6 |
91.4 |
91.3 |
92.7 |
92.0 |
92.6 |
92.0 |
93.2 |
Yukon |
|
**24.5 |
74.8 |
58.8 |
84.0 |
80.8 |
78.3 |
67.6 |
79.2 |
87.5 |
87.0 |
92.2 |
Northwest
Territories |
|
**74.4 |
75.6 |
64.7 |
69.5 |
59.8 |
60.2 |
75.5 |
77.9 |
57.8 |
73.0 |
54.6 |
Canada |
81.9 |
85.1 |
86.0 |
85.9 |
87.1 |
87.8 |
87.8 |
90.1 |
91.6 |
91.9 |
91.5 |
91.9 |
*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.
Table
3: Estimates of seat belt use from June 1998 survey,
by type of vehicles and by driver and occupants*
|
Province
/ Territory |
Passenger
Cars |
Passenger
Vans |
Light
Trucks |
Total
Light-duty Vehicles** |
Driver
(%) |
All***
(%) |
Driver
(%) |
All***
(%) |
Driver
(%) |
All***
(%) |
Driver
(%) |
All***
(%) |
Newfoundland |
90.8 |
87.5 |
89.3 |
86.9 |
81.2 |
78.0 |
89.2 |
86.4 |
Prince
Edward Island |
88.0 |
84.9 |
86.7 |
83.9 |
69.5 |
66.9 |
85.3 |
82.7 |
Nova
Scotia |
91.2 |
89.6 |
87.7 |
87.3 |
80.0 |
78.5 |
89.7 |
88.5 |
New
Brunswick |
91.8 |
89.6 |
88.7 |
88.1 |
79.6 |
78.9 |
89.5 |
87.9 |
Quebec |
94.7 |
92.4 |
93.9 |
91.8 |
92.5 |
91.7 |
94.5 |
92.3 |
Ontario |
91.5 |
89.6 |
91.2 |
89.8 |
79.3 |
79.0 |
90.7 |
89.1 |
Manitoba |
87.6 |
84.8 |
86.9 |
85.3 |
80.9 |
79.0 |
86.8 |
84.4 |
Saskatchewan |
94.1 |
91.4 |
92.0 |
89.8 |
80.8 |
78.7 |
92.0 |
89.7 |
Alberta |
87.8 |
84.9 |
83.9 |
82.3 |
70.3 |
65.4 |
85.1 |
82.4 |
British
Columbia |
93.2 |
90.6 |
92.2 |
90.6 |
78.9 |
77.5 |
91.8 |
89.7 |
Yukon |
92.2 |
85.2 |
83.6 |
81.9 |
77.7 |
71.6 |
87.3 |
82.1 |
Northwest
Territories |
54.6 |
54.3 |
58.0 |
60.2 |
35.8 |
40.2 |
50.7 |
52.6 |
Canada |
91.9 |
89.6 |
90.8 |
89.2 |
80.9 |
79.6 |
90.8 |
88.7 |
*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.
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