New seatbelt campaign targets at-work drivers

18 May 2010

A new Scottish initiative to drive home the importance of wearing a seatbelt - particularly among at-work drivers at the wheel of commercial vehicles - has been welcomed by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents.

The Have You Clicked? campaign has been launched by The Scottish Government, Road Safety Scotland and the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland.

With seatbelt wearing rates in Scotland lower among van, lorry, bus and coach drivers than car drivers, RoSPA is hoping the safety messages will be picked up by those who get behind the wheel for work.

A survey carried out for the Department for Transport last year found that 95% of car drivers in Scotland wear seatbelts. However, the wearing rate dropped to just 23% among bus, coach and minibus drivers. The figure was 58% for lorry drivers and 82% for van drivers. Car passengers belted up more often than passengers in other vehicles.

Since 2008, RoSPA Scotland and the Scottish Centre for Healthy Working Lives have run seminars about the legal, ethical and business reasons for addressing work-related road safety. RoSPA will now ensure that the 600 companies to have attended seminars are kept up to date with the seatbelt campaign.

Kathleen Braidwood, RoSPA Scotland’s road safety officer, said: “Nearly a third of people killed in cars are not wearing seatbelts and it has been estimated that at least half of those would have survived had they been strapped in. We still have work to do to encourage at-work drivers to take onboard seatbelt safety messages which, for whatever reason, they have not yet heeded.”