WASHINGTON — Virginians are getting better at buckling up.
So far in 2017, the seat-belt usage rate of 85.3 percent is a record high, according to the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles.
“Typically, Virginia averages about 79 to 80 percent — somewhere in there,” said Brandy Brubaker of Virginia’s DMV. “As we still have a large number of folks dying [while] not belted on our roadways, we still have more work to do.”
Brubaker said 236 of the 631 deaths on Virginia roads this year involved people who weren’t buckled up.
The Potomac River appears to be a dividing line for seat belt compliance in the D.C. area. In Maryland and in D.C., seat belt use is at 93 percent, which exceeds the national average of 90 percent.
Not wearing a seat belt is the leading cause of death on Maryland roads, according to the latest data available. Last year in Virginia, Brubaker said, 55 percent of the people killed in vehicles with seat belts weren’t using them.
“You could be the safest driver in the world and think that you’re not going to get in a crash [and] you don’t need to wear your seat belt, but you can’t control people who drive around you,” Brubaker said. “Wearing a seat belt is your first defense in a crash situation.”
