A recent study involving just over 14 hundred drivers which were conducted by the Ministry of Works revealed that approximately 50 per cent of 1,423 drivers observed were wearing a seatbelt with two-thirds of women complying.
The Minister of Works, Lennox Weston said he is particularly concerned by the findings of the study that also found that the seat belt wearing rate was even lower for drivers of Government vehicles, taxis, and commercial vehicles with only 40 per cent.
“We cannot allow Antiguans and Barbudans to continue to put their lives and the lives of others in their vehicles at risk every time they travel on the national road network especially since the Government is investing millions of dollars to improve roadways.
These surveys were conducted on the six main roads under the Government of Antigua and Barbuda Road Infrastructure Rehabilitation project and the Second Road Rehabilitation Project and it is believed that seatbelt use is even lower in rural areas, Weston added.
The Ministry said global research shows that wearing a seatbelt in the front seat reduces the risk of death by forty-five per cent and the risk of serious injury by fifty per cent.
Seatbelts protect the vital organs – the heart, lungs, liver, kidneys, and spleen and prevent ejection. People who are not wearing a seatbelt are thirty times more likely to be ejected from a vehicle during a crash.
The Government of Antigua is now considering a range of options, including increasing fines, implementing enforcement and media campaigns, and reviewing Government policies to achieve a one hundred per cent seat belt wearing rate.
