Georgia Injury Law Blog
Emory University will kick off a study later this year that will focus on the rates of seatbelt use as well as distracted driving rates among motorists in Georgia. The study is extremely important because the failure use a seatbelt and distracted driving account for a significant number of the personal injuries and wrongful deaths suffered in car accidents.
The study is courtesy state funding for the Injury Prevention Research Center at Emory. The Georgia Governor’s Office of Highway Safety has announced a grant of more than $296,000 for the division. The money will be used to better understand the kind of factors that affect driving behaviors among motorists in Georgia. The Injury Prevention Research Center plans to send trained observers to more than 400 sites across the state, and study factors like gender and age group that affect rash driving behaviors.
The Emory researchers will specifically focus on seatbelt usage rates across Georgia. This is a particular area of concern for Georgia transportation authorities. Seatbelt usage rates across the state have been on a steady decline over the last couple of years. Georgia transportation authorities recorded seatbelt usage rates of 89.3% in 2022, and these rates had dropped to 87.6% last year.