The surveys conducted under this traffic safety grant were used to assess the effectiveness of the occupant protection and child occupant protection program in Texas. Trends in occupant protection statewide and in urban areas show improvements and/or areas or populations in need of attention from year to year and over the long term. Because these results are used to guide program activities, the ultimate outcome will be increased occupant protection and decreased fatalities and injuries on Texas roadways.
Benefits to Texas Transportation Safety
Continuous monitoring of patterns of occupant restraint use, demographics of non-users, and areas of low use is of increased importance for countering the behavior shift of a small percentage of Texans and maintaining restraint use levels Texas has achieved to date. The number of lives saved demonstrates the magnitude of benefit from seat belt use. For example, the increase in seat belt use from the inception of the Click It or Ticket campaign in 2002 has reportedly saved 8,200 lives and prevented more than 148,000 serious injuries in traffic crashes on Texas roadways, with additional economic savings estimated as $33 billion in lost wages, medical and other expenses that would have resulted from traffic crashes had occupants not been restrained. The mission of the Texas Traffic Safety Program is to reduce the number and severity of motor vehicle crashes in Texas by supporting goals of an extensive grant program. One of these goals is to increase occupant protection (OP) use in all passenger vehicles and trucks. It is important to measure performance in the OP Program Area using observational surveys that provide valuable information regarding the effectiveness of strategies and programs, trends in use, and indications of where efforts should be focused. Overall, the surveys support the data-driven objectives for the OP program.
Project Need and Approach
Restraint use among Texas roadway users has made significant progress over the past three decades, with seat belt use rising from 68.6 percent in 1993 to a peak of 94.04 percent in 2012. Over the past decade, urban seat belt use has consistently remained at or above 90 percent, and child restraint use for car seat-aged children increased from around 50 percent in the early 1990s to the high 80 percent range. However, recent years have seen slight declines, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. Statewide seat belt use dropped from 91 percent in 2019 to 89.8 percent in 2021, before recovering to 90.38 percent in 2022.
Texas compares less favorably to the national average in child safety seat use, although progress has been notable. Since the enactment of the child passenger safety law, surveys conducted by the Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) show that restraint use among young children has dramatically increased, rising from 21.9 percent in 1984 to 88.3 percent in 2025, as measured by observational surveys in 14 cities.
TTI conducts observational surveys to measure statewide safety belt use and conducts detailed restraint use surveys in urban areas of seat belt and child restraint use for children under five years old. Data collection involves sampling roadways and site locations, and adherence to survey protocols specific to each survey.
Project Activities
2025
A 2025 statewide seat belt survey was conducted by members of TTI’s Behavioral Research Program in the Center for Transportation Safety from June 2 to June 27, 2025. Observations focused on shoulder belt use at 160 sites in 20 counties across the state, during weekdays and weekends, between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m.
30,460 front seat occupants of passenger vehicles were observed. Driver and front seat passenger occupants combined were seat belted at a rate of 90.02 percent. The rate for occupants of passenger cars was 91.19 percent and for pickups the rate was 87.72 percent. Drivers in both vehicle categories were seat belted 90.05 percent of the time and passengers were seat belted 89.73 percent of the time.
In urban areas, the combined 18-city sample was 25,974 front seat occupants observed at a total of 108 intersections. The percent of front seat occupants restrained in these urban area locations was estimated as 86.7. Drivers were seat belted at a rate of 86.6 percent and passengers at a rate of 87.2 percent. Highest use was observed in Austin at 92.1 percent, and lowest was in Houston at 83.2 percent. [A graph of city use rates is in an image on the left.]
Overall, females were more likely to use seat belts than males, with a 3.2 percentage point difference in use for drivers and passengers combined. Senior passengers were the most frequent users. Children under 15 were least likely to be buckled as passengers observed in the front seat. As in previous years, passengers were more likely to be buckled up when the driver was buckled up. Restraint use for drivers in cars was higher than driver restraint use in pickup trucks; 87.8 percent for car drivers compared to 83.1 percent for pickup drivers, and 87.9 percent for car passengers compared to 84.9 percent for pickup passengers.
The 2025 observational survey of child restraint use was conducted beginning in October and continuing through mid-May, occurring throughout the school year. Observations were conducted at 204 locations that were two types of sites, childcare centers and intersections near or entry points to shopping centers, grocery stores, major department stores, or other major traffic generators. Observation sites were consistent with prior waves of the survey, and when necessary due to closures or refusals, centers were replaced with alternates within the same area and with similar enrollments.
13,107 observations were made in the 2025 survey, revealing restraint use of some type by 89.2 percent of children seen. Of those who were observed restrained in some manner, observers identified 20.1 percent in child safety seats used or installed incorrectly or improperly using a vehicle belt system. The survey revealed that 10.8 percent of the child passengers observed were not restrained at all, with 173 children riding in the lap of another occupant.
Children were more likely to be restrained in the back seat than those riding in the front seat, and 98.0 percent of the children observed were riding in the back seat. Children were also more likely to be in a child restraint system when observed riding in a car (89.4 percent) compared to riding in a pickup (86.5 percent). In addition, a higher percentage were in car seats observed at childcare centers (92.0) than the percentage observed at shopping centers (87.7).
The percentage of child restraint use varied from a low of 81.6 percent in Brownsville to a high of 93.7 percent in Austin. The overall combined child restraint use rate across all cities of 89.2 percent observed in 2025 was a statistically significant change from the overall use rate of 88.3 percent observed in 2024. [A map of city use rates is provided in the image on the left.]
2024
The 2024 statewide seat belt survey involved fieldwork across Texas, with observations conducted at 160 sites representing urban, suburban, and rural locations. The survey team—trained in procedural guidelines, data recording, and reliability checks—carried out the seat belt survey from June 3 to June 14, 2024. Each site was observed for one hour, documenting restraint use for drivers and right-front-seat outboard passengers based on shoulder harness or child safety seat use. Eligible vehicles included passenger cars and pickup trucks.
A similar observational survey of child restraint use began in October 2023 and continued through mid-May 2024, spanning the school year. Observations were conducted at 204 locations, including childcare centers and intersections near shopping centers, grocery stores, and other major traffic generators. At childcare centers, every arriving or departing child was observed, when possible; at shopping center locations, a target of 50 child observations per site was used.
Project Title: Occupant Restraint Use Survey
Project Start and End Dates: Ongoing
Author List: Katie Womack
Sponsor/Funding Source: Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT)