Seat Belts

One of the safest choices drivers and passengers can make is to buckle up.¹

Tragically, seat belt use is lowest amongst teen drivers and the majority of teenagers involved in fatal crashes were unbuckled.

In 2025, the national use rate of a seat belt was at 91.3%. Seat belt use in passenger vehicles have saved an estimated 14,955 lives.¹

In 2024, 51% of teen drivers who died in motor vehicle accidents where unbuckled. Even more troubling, when the teen driver involved in the fatal crash was unbuckled, nine out of 10 of the passengers who died were also unbuckled.²

In 2025, about 25% of victims of deadly vehicle crashes on New Hampshire roads were not wearing seat belts.⁴

New Hampshire law requires anyone under the age of 18 who is driving or riding in a vehicle to be properly restrained. Drivers of vehicles with unrestrained or improperly restrained youth can receive a $62.00 fine for the first offense and $124.00 for a subsequent offense.³

The consequences of not wearing, or improperly wearing, a seat belt are clear:

1. 1. Buckling up helps to keep you safe and secure inside your vehicle, whereas not buckling up can result in being totally ejected from a vehicle in a crash; which is almost always deadly.¹
2. 2. Air bags are not enough to protect you; in fact, the force of an air bag can seriously injure or even kill you if you’re not buckled up.¹
3. 3. Improperly wearing a seat belt, such as putting the strap below your arm, puts you and your passengers at risk in a crash.¹

The benefits of buckling up are equally clear:

• 1. If you buckle up in the front seat of a passenger car, you can reduce your risk of:
  • a. Fatal injury by 45%¹
  • b. Moderate to critical injury by 50%¹
• 2. If you buckle up in a light truck, you can reduce your risk of:
  • a. Fatal injury by 60%¹
  • b. Moderate to critical injury by 65%¹

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration: Two Guys

The Top 4 Things You Should Know About Buckling Up

1. 1. Buckling up is the single most effective thing you can do to protect yourself in a crash. Seatbelts are the best defense against impaired, aggressive, and distracted drivers. Being buckled up during a crash helps keep you safe and secure inside your vehicle.¹
2. 2. Air bags are designed to work with seat belts, not replace them. If you don’t wear your seatbelt, you could be thrown into a rapidly opening frontal air bag. Such force could injure or even kill you.¹ Learn more about air bag safety here.
3. 3. Guidelines to buckle up safely
4. • The lap belt and shoulder belt are secured across the pelvis and rib cage, which are better able to withstand crash forces than other parts of your body.¹
5. • Place the shoulder belt across the middle of your chest and away from your neck.¹
6. • The lap belt rests across your hips, not your stomach.¹
7. • NEVER put the shoulder belt behind your back or under your arm.¹
8. 4. Fit matters
9. • Before you buy a car, check to see that its seat belts are a good fit for you.¹

What about the back seats?

Rear-seat motor vehicle passengers are less likely than front-seat passengers to wear a seat belt, making them more likely to injure themselves, drivers and the other passengers in a crash.⁵ In a crash, an unbuckled rear-seat passenger can be thrown around the vehicle. It is often found in ride-share and taxi services that most occupants do not buckle up. Research has found that in severe frontal crashes, a belted driver was more than twice as likely to die when the passenger seated behind them was not wearing a seat belt.⁶