Prevalence of use of safety devices on motorized vehicles in Italy. A multicentric road side observational study.

Objectives: to give an overview of the use of safety devices in motorized vehicles in Italy in the years 2015-2017.

Design: road side observational study.

Setting And Participants: a sample of 232,283 road users in 28 cities across the Italian territory with a resident population of more than 10 million inhabitants (17% of the Italian population) was considered.

Main Outcome Measures: the use of seat belts (front and rear), child restraints, and motorcycle helmets were monitored. For each city, the survey was carried out in urban, sub-urban, and extra-urban areas. Data were aggregated by three geographic areas: North, Centre, and South. Data for front seat belts was also provided for drivers and passengers separately.

Results: the use of front seat belts shows a dramatic geographical trend ranging from 82.6% (North) to 36.3% (South). Drivers use seat belts more frequently than passengers (63.3% vs 57.4%). The same North-South trend shows the use of rear seat belts (from 19.0% to 3.3%) and child restraints (from 59.9% to 16.6%). Helmet use was high everywhere in Italy (more than 94%).

Conclusions: despite the use of safety devices, which has been mandatory for many years, compliance seems to depend on the voluntary behaviour of drivers and passengers influenced by socioeconomical and cultural patterns. The use of rear seat belts and child restraints is still far from an acceptable level, as well as the use of front seat belts in the South and in the Centre. The increased use of safety devices would have significant public health and traffic safety implications, as a potential of 327 deaths/year could be saved.