SEAT-BELT USE IN AIR-BAG-EQUIPPED CARS - 1986-92 MODELS

Concerns have been raised that occupants of vehicles equipped with bot h air bags and seat belts would be less likely to use the manual lap/s houlder belt than occupants of cars equipped only with such belts. An earlier survey, based primarily on 1986-89 model-year cars with air ba gs, indicated that seat-belt-use rates were about the same in cars wit h and without air bags. Drivers of 1986-1992 model cars with air bags were observed in the Maryland and Virginia suburbs of Washington, DC d uring the Summer of 1991. The survey data indicate that seat belt use among occupants of late-model cars with air bags (primarily 1990 and 1 991 models) is very high and about the same as among drivers of late-m odel cars with manual belts only, despite the increasing diversity of cars with air bags.