Seat Belts
Each year, hundreds of unbuckled injuries and fatalities occur on Colorado roads. With an average 120,000 crashes each year, there is a 1 in 33 chance that you will be in a car crash. Despite our best intentions, we are all at risk when on the road. Regular seat belt use is the single most effective way to prevent severe injury or death in a crash — reducing the chance of harm by 50%.
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A Common Bond
CDOT’s latest seat belt safety campaign, Common Bond, features a variety of light-hearted, contrasting images to illustrate that, even though Coloradans hold passionate opinions and may not agree on everything, we can all get behind seat belts and the importance of buckling up.
It’s simple — if you are going to enter a vehicle, put on your seat belt. Help create safer roads together by asking others to buckle up, too. Almost 90% of Coloradans buckle up. If you don’t, what’s holding you back?
No matter where your destination is or how far you travel, we can ALL agree to get behind seat belts. Seat belts can save your life and possibly someone else’s. Please remember to buckle up every time, every trip.
Educate
- Colorado’s seat belt use rate is 86.3 percent — well below the national use average of 90 percent.
- In 2021, 232 unbuckled vehicle occupants were killed on Colorado roadways, a 12% increase over 2020.
- An estimated 70 lives could be saved every year if everyone in Colorado buckled up.
- Seat belts reduce the risk of injury or death in a crash by 50 percent.
- In 2018, five of the six counties with the lowest seat belt use in Colorado were rural.
Adults — Colorado has a secondary enforcement law for adult drivers and front-seat passengers. Drivers can be ticketed for violating the seat belt law if they are stopped for another traffic violation.
Teens — Colorado’s Graduated Drivers Licensing (GDL) law requires all drivers under 18 and their passengers, regardless of their age, to wear seat belts. GDL is a primary enforcement, meaning teens can be pulled over solely for not wearing a seat belt or having passengers without seat belts.
Children — Colorado’s Child Passenger Safety law is a primary enforcement, meaning the driver can be stopped and ticketed if an officer sees an unrestrained or improperly restrained child under age 16 in the vehicle.
