Wayne State Commuters Drive Safe and Smart; Study finds WSU seatbelt usage is 88%

More than 88 percent of the faculty, staff and students commuting to campus wear seatbelts, according to a study conducted last month by the Transportation Engineering Research Group at the College of Engineering.

Seatbelt usage increased from 85 to 88 percent during the recent 'Drive Safely to Wayne State' campaign, the study found.

"The Wayne State 'Drive Safely' initiative went a long way toward achieving our goal of reducing death and injuries on the highway," said Dan Vartanian, corporate program coordinator of the Michigan Office of Highway Safety Planning.

The Transportation Engineering Group, headed by Tapan Datta, professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, will be conducting a third survey in the next several weeks to see if the 88 percent figure will be sustained.

The figure compares favorably with seatbelt usage throughout the state of Michigan and the rest of the country, Vartanian said. Ninety percent of all Michigan drivers wear seatbelts, placing the state among only five in the nation with 90 percent or more seatbelt usage.

'"he most effective thing one can do to protect oneself against injury is to wear a seatbelt," says Albert King, distinguished professor of Biomedical Engineering. King should know. A world-renown researcher in impact biomechanics, he has conducted investigations at Wayne State's Bioengineering Research Center leading to improvements in all aspects of automobile safety design from seatbelts, to collapsible steering wheels, to breakaway windshield glass.

In their initial survey taken in September of more than 5,000 drivers entering the campus parking structures, the Transportation Engineering Research Group observed 85 percent of the drivers wearing seatbelts. In the follow-up survey of the drivers taken during the first two days of the 'Drive Safely to Wayne State' on October 13 and 14, the percentage rose to 88.