The Impact of The Rear Seat Belt Use on Traffic Safety in the UAE

Helping to reduce the number of deaths and serious injuries on our roads network is one of the most critical issues in transportation field nowadays. Wearing a seatbelt is among highly effective ways to protect passengers in case of accidents. However, previous studies had shown that there is still significant percentage of road users who are not wearing a seatbelt especially those who are sitting in the back seats of the vehicle. This study aims to determine the safety effectiveness of the back-seat belt use law that was enforced in 2017 in the United Arab Emirates on people's commitment to wear it. This study also aims to study the public awareness of this important law. A survey was conducted by collecting data from various road users located in the United Arab Emirates in Fall 2019. A T-test and ANOVA test were applied to find the correlation between the different sections of the survey. The results showed that there is a correlation between the people's driving experience and their use of the back-seat belt. In addition, it was clear that this year witnessed an increase in the number of people who said that they never wear the back-seat belts in comparison with the previous study where most of the new drivers admitted to never wearing/asking to wear the seat belt. The results of the survey call for firm actions to be performed by law enforcement regarding the use of the back-seat belt for the safety of the public.