OK, so the state officials in question (from the Department of Public Safety) didn’t phrase it exactly like that, but Roadguy likes to think that they were at least tempted to use the word “Moron” when releasing this tidbit: Seat-belt use in Minnesota has declined slightly since last year.

Yes, this means that the chance to have automotive glass embedded in one’s face is apparently gaining in popularity, particularly among the youngest drivers; those under 30 have the lowest seat-belt rate, at 74 percent, down 5 points from last year. That group helped pull down the overall rate from 84 percent to 83 percent. Other selected factoids from the state’s observations:

• Women behaved better than men (88 percent to 79 percent), yet another reason for insurance companies to like them best.
• Drivers of pick-up trucks had the lowest buckle-up rate (76 percent), while vans and minivans had the highest (88 percent).
• More than half of Minnesotans killed in crashes in the past five years were not wearing seat belts.

Another curiosity: The survey found that, at any given daylight hour, 4.7 percent of motorists were talking on hand-held cell phones. This figure struck me as a bit low, and sure enough, the study did not include the downtown areas of the Twin Cities, where a casual look around reveals an estimated rate of 107 percent.

Statistician-type geeks can find the full report — in the form of an extremely detailed 48-page Word document — here at the Office of Traffic Safety website.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 27th, 2006 at 6:16 am and is filed under WUWT?. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.