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Seat belt wearing in the front seat saves over 2,200 lives every year. Everyone knows they should wear a seat belt in the front seat, but many people still don't realise how dangerous it is not to wear a seat belt in the back.

This could result in death or serious injury to you and people sitting in the front seat.

Any compensation for injury following a collision may be reduced if you were not wearing a seat belt.

Although the wearing of seat belts (front and rear) is compulsory for car drivers and passengers, the results of the April 2007 Northern Ireland Seat Belt Survey, carried out by the Department of the Environment, is encouraging show that a proportion of car occupants still do not wear seat belts. The overall wearing rate in April 2007 stood at 95% in comparison to 93% in 2006..The back seat wearing rate for children aged 1 - 4 was 96% however this figure declined to 90% for 5-9 year olds and to 92% for 10 -13 year olds.  These figures show room for improvement especially in the age group of 5- 13.year olds.

During 2005 there were 6,505 casualties who were occupants of cars, cars used as taxis and light goods vehicles. These are vehicles in which seat belts are normally worn. 84 of these casualties were fatally injured. 29% of those fatally injured were not wearing a seatbelt at the time of the collision and in a further 27% of cases it was not known whether a seatbelt was in use.

(Figures taken from PSNI Road Traffic Collision Statistics Annual Report 2005)