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Countermeasures That Work Young Drivers Countermeasures 1.6 GDL Belt Use Requirements

1.6 GDL Belt Use Requirements


Effectiveness: 2 Star Cost: $
Use: Low
Time: Medium

This countermeasure involves explicitly requiring belt use under their GDL laws. Note that young drivers are covered by seat belt laws in all States (with the exception of New Hampshire, which only requires seat belts for people under 18) (GHSA 2019c; IIHS, 2019d). An explicit belt use requirement in a State’s GDL law may have more influence on beginning drivers than the State’s overall belt use law. This may be especially true in States where a GDL belt use requirement is coupled with primary enforcement for young drivers and in States where seat belt violations result in delayed graduation to the next GDL stage.

Effectiveness Concerns: To date there has been only one evaluation of the effects of explicit seat belt use requirements in GDL laws. This evaluation found no evidence that the countermeasure had any effect on teen driver belt use (Freedman & Levi, 2008).

Further information about the known research, potential effectiveness, costs, use, and time to implement is available in Appendix A6, Section 1.6.