In 2022, the Insurance coverage Institute for Freeway Security started evaluating seatbelt reminders in new automobiles. Regardless of the huge enhancements in car security, auto fatalities in the USA have been trending upward, and about half of these deaths have one factor in widespread—the particular person wasn’t sporting their seatbelt.
“We now have belt use that’s over 90 % on this nation, however nonetheless half of the people who find themselves dying in crashes in automobiles are unbelted,” Jessica Jermakian, IIHS’s senior vp of car analysis, informed Motor1 late final month after I visited the Institute’s Car Analysis Middle in Virginia.
Picture by: Volvo
Based on the most recent information from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for 2024, 48 % of the 22,713 individuals killed in auto accidents have been unbelted.
The IIHS check assesses the audible and visual seatbelt reminders for front- and second-row seats, with the score primarily based on elements corresponding to quantity, frequency, and period. For a car to earn a “Good” score, it should have an audible reminder that lasts 90 seconds or extra for unbelted passengers in both row.
This has led many automakers to undertake extra persistent—and generally aggravating—seatbelt reminders. As of the 2025 mannequin yr, almost 70 % of the fashions it examined, and it doesn’t consider all new automobiles, earned a “Good” score for his or her programs.
Jermakian stated that IIHS’s testing has revealed that extra persistent belt reminders do work, getting part-time customers, those that forgot or don’t put on a belt in sure circumstances, to buckle up, like those that take quick journeys or trip in a taxi or Uber.
