Community-based interventions for encouraging safety belt use

Two experiments were conducted to evaluate the behavioral impact of community-based intervention for promoting seat belt wearing. For the first study, fliers prompting safety belt use were given to drivers at a pedestrian crosswalk. Of 180 drivers receiving two handbills, 17.2% were wearing a safety belt during the first handbill receipt whereas 42.4% of these drivers were wearing their seat belt when given a second handbill. For the second study, seat belt use was recorded at the drive-in window of a bank. After 9 days of baseline (2 hours per day), fliers urging safety belt use were distributed for 17 days. The baseline was reinstated for 13 days, followed by 11 days of a Prompting/Reinforcement intervention which gave bank patrons a chance to win a Bingo game if they were wearing their safety belt. Both of these interventions were accepted by the community and appeared to influence marked increases in safety belt usage.