Impact of Seatbelt Use to Road Accident in Thailand

Using seatbelt is one of the road effective strategies for the prevention of death and the reduction of injury in a crash. This research was conducted to investigate the factors influencing seatbelt use in Thailand. In addition, this study was to analyze the impact of seatbelt use in motor vehicle crashes by using the injury data from hospital. The significant influencing factors of seatbelt use were determined by using the field observation and questionnaire survey.  The field observation of seatbelt users show that the seatbelt use by passenger car and pickup was observed as the highest in Bangkok, and the lowest in Suphanburi. The seatbelt use of passenger cars were observed to be higher than pickup, lower seatbelt use was observed for female, and the seatbelt use of driver position was considerably higher than front and rear seat position.  The statistical analysis from the questionnaire survey indicates that the sex, age, education, income, vehicle type, seating position, seat belt installation, average travel time, and the interaction between age and seating position, education and income, and vehicle type and seating position were found to significantly affect the seatbelt use.  The probability of survival and severity index analysis found that the car users who are unbelted could have higher severity rate of 67.5 % than those who are belted. From the odds ratio analysis, the car users who are unbelted have higher fatality risk than those who are belted as shown in the odds ratio of 1.54.  The fatality reduction analysis shows that in every 100 people in fatal injuries, 35 people could be saved by seat belt.  This study shows that if conformity of the seatbelt use is maximized, live loss due to road crash injury could be reduced annually.