Attachment 4 - Version A Question-By-Question Justification

VERSION A QUESTIONNAIRE

QUESTION-BY-QUESTION JUSTIFICATION

Driving Activity

Q1 Each respondent in this survey will be asked a screening question to determine whether they are drivers. Question 1 establishes how often the respondent usually drives a motor vehicle. Those who drive even a few times a year qualify for the driving portions of the interview.

Respondents who report they never drive will be skipped out of the parts of the interview about driving behaviors, since the questions are not appropriate for them.

Q1a NHTSA increasingly has focused on raising the level of seat belt use at night, as research shows the usage rate at night to be lower than the usage rate during the day. The purpose of Q1a is to provide a general frequency measure of night time driving that will be used to assess how the driver population at night differs from the driver population during the day for purposes of targeting interventions.

Driving at Work

NHTSA views the job site as an important access point for promoting highway safety, particularly where driving is a regular part of the job.

Q2 Question 2 asks respondents if they ever drive at work. The data will be used to determine the proportion of the population potentially subject to worksite seat belt policies. The data also will be applied to programmatic decisions on worksite targeting.

Questions 3 through 4a will be asked only of those respondents who report in Question 2 that they drive a vehicle while at work. All other respondents will be skipped to Question 5.

Q3 Question 3 asks respondents how often they drive at work. This item clarifies whether the driving acknowledged in Question 2 is sporadic or regular.

Q4 Question 4 asks respondents if their company or business has a policy requiring seat belt use. NHTSA is actively involved in encouraging companies and businesses to adopt such policies for their employees. Besides adopting the policies, it is important that the organizations effectively communicate the policies to employees for there to be an impact. Question 4 will provide a measure of the safety community's success in getting organizations to fulfill this dual task; i.e., adoption and communication of seat belt rules for employees.

Q4a Question 4a developed from cognitive testing of the questionnaire, where respondents differentiated between formal and less formalized policies. This item will clarify the extent to which organizations have instituted and communicated formal policies recommended by NHTSA.

Vehicle Type

Q5 This question identifies the respondent's usual driving vehicle. It focuses the respondent on a particular vehicle when answering ensuing questions on seat belt type and use. Anchoring these later questions to a specific vehicle is designed to improve the accuracy of the collected data. The data will also be used to ascertain if belt use patterns vary by vehicle type.

Seat Belt Type

Belt use patterns and impediments to belt use may relate to the type of restraint system within the vehicle. These questions will be used to test that hypothesis by identifying the restraint system in the respondent's usual driving vehicle. The information will be compared to reported belt use plus data on what the respondent finds bothersome about wearing seat belts.

Q6 Question 6 asks if the restraint system installed in the vehicle is lap only, shoulder only, or both lap and shoulder.

Q7 In those cases where the restraint is comprised of both a lap and shoulder belt, Question 7 asks if they are one piece or two separate belts.

Q11/a/b/c/d These questions ask about adjustable door mounts for shoulder belts. They will provide data on the extent to which the public has access to adjustable belts (Q11), whether the public is able to make effective use of the adjustment capability (Q11a/b), and reasons for non-use of the devices (Q11c/d). Since discomfort is frequently cited as a reason for non-use of seat belts, use of adjusting devices may promote shoulder belt use and deter some from disconnecting the belt, disabling it, or placing it behind them. If there are obstacles to using the adjustable feature, then identifying and countering them could lead to increased seat belt use as people are able to make themselves more comfortable.

Seat Belt Use

A principal aim of this survey is to assess the level of seat belt use among the public, and to determine what factors relate to use and non-use. This series of questions collects fundamental data on belt use.

Q12 This question asks how often respondents wear their seat belt when driving. The obtained data will provide a general measure of seat belt use.

Q14/a Historically, seat belt use is over-reported in surveys; i.e., persons typically say they "always" wear the belt. This also occurred during questionnaire testing. Yet subsequent probing often revealed that the same respondent had failed to wear his/her seat belt at some point within the last couple of days. This led to inclusion of the probe question into the questionnaire (Q14).

Question 14 asks respondents when was the last time they did not wear their seat belt when driving. The item will provide information on the over-reporting of belt use in the previous questions. In addition, it will keep people who occasionally do not wear their belts from being screened out of later questions concerning reasons underlying non-use of belts (i.e., because they had said in Question 12 that they wear their seat belt all the time). Question 14a asks those who ‘don’t know’ when they last failed to wear their belt to say whether they ever did not wear it in the past year. This will determine whether they are treated as true ‘all the time’ belt users or as those who occasionally do not wear their belts.

Q15/16a/b Seat belt use can differ significantly between driving for work and driving outside work. These questions assess the extent to which differences occur, and explore the reasons underlying any differences in belt use.

Question 15 asks respondents if they are more likely, less likely, or just as likely to wear their seat belt when driving for work compared driving for personal use. Those who do not drive at work are skipped out of the question.

Questions 16a and 16b follow up responses to Question 15 by asking the reasons why respondents are more (Q16a) or less (Q16b) likely to wear their seat belt while driving on the job. The degree to which respondents cite company belt use policies for higher belt use will provide important information on the effectiveness of such workplace rules. Moreover, other reasons that emerge to explain higher or lower belt use in one environment compared to the other will prove valuable to NHTSA when determining emphases for programmatic activity.

Reasons For Use: Drivers

It is important that NHTSA have an in-depth understanding of the factors influencing seat belt use in order for the Agency to determine how best to encourage nonusers to "buckle up."

Q17/18 These questions ask respondents if their use of seat belts has changed in frequency in the past year (Q17). If respondents said it increased, then Question 18 asks what caused the change. Analyses will isolate specific factors that have served as change agents of belt use behavior.

Q19/20 These questions serve a similar function as Question 18; to obtain an understanding of the reasons underlying current seat belt use. However, information is collected from a broader segment of the sample (i.e., all belt users, whether or not there has been recent increase in their belt use). Moreover, this series is responsive to less abrupt causes than the change agents likely to emerge in Question 18.

Question 19 asks respondents which of several reasons for wearing belts applies to them. They will receive a list of reasons derived from past research and hypotheses, with respondents answering "yes" or "no" to each. The data will be used to test the current viability of the hypothesized reasons. Respondents also will be given the opportunity to add other reasons for their belt use that they consider meaningful.

Question 20 asks respondents which of the reasons acknowledged in Question 19 is the most important influence on their use of seat belts.

Reasons For Non-Use: Drivers

The safety community must do more than implement programs that buttress reasons for wearing seat belts. Impediments to belt use need to be identified and appropriately addressed; otherwise they may overwhelm program efforts.

Q21 Question 21 uses a structure similar to Question 19 to identify causes of non-use. Respondents will receive a list of reasons for non-use, with respondents answering “yes” or “no” that the reason applies to them. Respondents also will be given the opportunity to add other reasons why they sometimes don’t wear seat belts.

Q22 Question 22 asks respondents to identify the most important reason why they do not wear their seat belt (chosen from responses to Question 21). This information will help to set priorities for addressing barriers to belt use.

Q22a Question 22a asks respondents if their belt use when driving at night differs from their belt use when driving during the day. This item will explore whether the lower belt usage being found at night in observation studies can be explained by variability in individuals’ frequency of using belts across the 24-hour day, as opposed to night time drivers being a different population than day time drivers.

Q23/24 These questions ask if there is anything that respondents particularly dislike about wearing their seat belt (Q23), and if yes, what is it they find annoying (Q24). Any obtained information on impeding characteristics of seat belts will be useful in determining if belt standards should be reviewed.

Moving Children To The Back Seat

NHTSA and its partners were largely successful during the late 1990s and early 2000s in delivering the message that children age 12 and younger should ride in the back seat for safety reasons. These items examine whether public awareness of the safety issue remains high, or if the message needs to be re-emphasized.

Q25/26 These questions are used to identify respondents (drivers) who live with at least one child in the appropriate age range, and then to select a specific child about whom to ask questions concerning the seating position.

Q27 Question 27 assesses the child’s usual seating position by asking the frequency with which the child has sat in the front seat during the past 30 days.

Q28/a/b Besides using the above items to assess whether the public has gotten the message and is keeping children from riding in the front, NHTSA specifically wants to know the bases for their decisions regarding the child’s seating position. Questions 28 and 28b accomplish this by first asking if there has been any change in the past year in the child’s use of the front seat. If the respondent says that the child sits in the front seat less often, Question 28b asks the reason. Conversely, Question 28a seeks reasons why some parents are permitting their children to move to the front seat.

Passenger Use of Seat Belts

These items provide a status report of public use of seat belts as passengers.

Q30/31/32/33 Preliminary questions ask the frequency of passenger status (Q30) and respondents' typical passenger position in the vehicle (Q31). This sets the context for the next two questions, which ask how often respondents wear their belts when riding as passengers in the front seat (Q32) and in the back seat (Q33). Besides providing a measure of safety behavior, respondents' belt use as passengers will be compared to their belt use as drivers to determine if differences exist.

Reasons For Use and Non-Use: Non-drivers

Non-drivers and motorcyclists are not asked the earlier questions regarding reasons for seat belt use/non-use (Q19-Q24) because the survey links those items to driver status. Yet it still is important to discern what motivates non-drivers/motorcyclists to use, or not use, seat belts as passengers in motor vehicles that have seat belts. Therefore, these respondents will be asked Questions 34-39 to obtain that information. Drivers other than motorcyclists will skip out of the entire section as they were administered the same questions earlier. Questions 34-39 virtually repeat Questions 19-24 (with the exception of Q22a, which is specific to drivers).

Q34/35 These questions assess the reasons underlying current seat belt use. Question 34 asks respondents which of several reasons for wearing belts applies to them. They will receive a list of reasons derived from past research and hypotheses, with respondents answering "yes" or "no" to each. Respondents also will be given the opportunity to add other reasons for their belt use that they consider meaningful. Question 35 asks respondents which of the reasons acknowledged in Question 34 is the most important influence on their use of seat belts.

Q36 Question 36 uses a structure similar to Question 34 to identify causes of non-use. Respondents will receive a list of reasons for non-use, with respondents answering “yes” or “no” that the reason applies to them. Respondents also will be given the opportunity to add other reasons why they sometimes do not wear their seat belt.

Q37 Question 37 asks respondents to identify the most important reason why they do not wear their seat belt (chosen from responses to Question 36). This information will help to set priorities for addressing barriers to belt use.

Q38/39 The questions that follow ask if there is anything that respondents particularly dislike about wearing their seat belt (Q38), and if yes, what it is they find annoying (Q39). Any obtained information on impeding characteristics of seat belts will be useful in determining if standards regarding seat belts should be reviewed.

Attitudes Toward Belt Laws

NHTSA strongly supports enactment and enforcement of laws mandating seat belt use by the public. Such laws have played an important role in raising belt usage rates over the years.

Success in enacting or strengthening safety legislation is heavily dependent on the level of public support for the laws. Building public support thus becomes an important element in strategies undertaken by the safety community. Strategic decisions on how best to build this support require knowledge of where the public already stands in its attitudes toward the laws (including appropriate penalties). This series of questionnaire items collects that information.

Q40/41 These questions ask respondents if they support enactment of seat belt laws covering the front (Q40), and back (Q41) seats.

Q42/42a These questions address the most common sanction, asking respondents if they support fines (Q42), and if so, what the minimum fine should be (Q42a).

Q43 Question 43 explores the level of support for a more severe penalty, points against the driver license.

Q44 Question 44 explores whether people believe that current fine amounts for violating the State seat belt law are sufficient to influence behavior. Respondents will be asked how likely a given fine amount would cause someone they knew who didn’t always wear seat belts to begin wearing his or her belt more often. The dollar amount specified to the respondents will be the actual amount of the fine in their respective States.

Q45 Question 45 asks respondents their likely reaction to receiving a seat belt ticket. The question derives from findings during cognitive testing that persons may support seat belt laws in a general sense (i.e., saying they favor the laws a lot in Question 40), but at the same time disagree that they should personally be subject to ticketing. There appeared a difference in how subjects perceived the law on a societal versus personal basis. Question 40 addresses the societal perspective while Question 45 addresses the personal perspective.

Knowledge of Belt Laws

No law can be effective if the public is unaware of its existence or provisions. These questions examine if basic awareness problems exist. The data will be used to determine the need for information campaigns.

Q46 Question 46 asks respondents if their State has a seat belt law. The vast majority of the sample should respond "yes" as 49 States currently have some form of seat belt law for adults on their books.

Q47 Question 47 tests respondents' knowledge as to who is covered by the laws. Responses will be compared to provisions of the various State laws to determine if respondents are correct or not. Responses also will be compared to reported seat belt use, to determine whether the specific provisions of the law make a difference in whether people wear their seat belts in those seating positions they believe are covered by the law.

Q48/49/49a Question 48 asks respondents if their State law calls for "primary" or "secondary" enforcement. There remain a number of States whose seat belt laws only allow secondary enforcement, where law enforcement officers can't stop the vehicle for observed violations of the seat belt law but can enforce the law if the vehicle is stopped for some other reason. NHTSA has spent much effort encouraging States to pass or upgrade laws so that they permit primary enforcement, where law enforcement officers can stop the vehicle if they see a seat belt violation. Yet the public may already assume that law enforcement officers can stop and ticket the driver for a seat belt violation, even in States where the law only allows secondary enforcement. Responses to Question 48 will be compared to the actual State laws to assess whether there is an actual gain in enforcement perceptions with enactment of primary versus secondary enforcement laws.

Questions 49 and 49a identify the level of public support for primary enforcement of seat belt laws. Question 49 directly asks respondents whether or not they feel seat belt laws should have primary enforcement provisions. If they say no, then the next question says that most traffic laws permit primary enforcement and asks why they feel seat belt laws should be treated differently.

Violation of Seat Belt Laws

There are concerns that law enforcement officers may ignore seat belt violations when ticketing vehicle occupants for other infractions. This could communicate to violators that belt laws are not important, and may reinforce noncompliance behavior. Questions 50-50e will collect data to examine this problem. In addition, data from this series of items will provide information on the overall percentage of the population ticketed for traffic violations.

Q50/50a Initial questions will establish if the respondent has been stopped by law enforcement officers during the past year for a traffic-related reason (Q50) while not wearing a seat belt (Q50a). Those not stopped will be skipped out of questions 50a-50e, while those who were stopped but were wearing their seat belt will be asked if they received a ticket for any traffic violation from the law enforcement officer (Q50e).

Q50b/c/d Those not wearing their belt when stopped will be asked whether they received a ticket (Q50b) or warning (Q50c) for violating the seat belt law. They also will be asked if they received a ticket for any traffic violation other than for a seat belt violation (Q50d). If respondents indicate that they did not receive a ticket for a belt violation, but did receive a ticket for another offense, it could indicate a problem in enforcement of belt laws when multiple violations occur.

Q50e Question 50e parallels Question 50d, but is asked only of persons who were wearing their belts when stopped. The wording is slightly different from Question 50d to account for the fact that they would not have been subject to a belt ticket.

Q51/52 These items ask respondents if they ever received a ticket (Q51) or warning (Q52) for violation of a seat belt law. The information from these items will be used to examine relationships between ticketing and attitudes and behavior concerning seat belt use.

Q52a Question 52a asks those who received a ticket or warning whether or not they increased their belt use as a result. This will help to assess the effectiveness of enforcement actions on belt use frequency.

Perceptions of Enforcement

The effectiveness of laws designed to deter individuals from engaging in a legally proscribed behavior depends heavily upon whether the public perceives a realistic enforcement threat.

Q53 Question 53 will measure whether a perceived enforcement threat exists by asking respondents if they think their non-use of belts would likely lead to a ticket.

Critical Attitudes Related Toward Seat Belt Use

Research has pointed to a number of attitudes that likely play a role in public acceptance and use of seat belts. These include the perceived efficacy of seat belts, anxiety factors, peer pressure, and role modeling. This series of questions tests how pervasive these attitudes are among the public. Analysis of the data will show how these attitudes cluster among groups of users or non-users; and will identify critical attitudes that safety practitioners need to encourage, as well as strategic obstacles that need to be overcome.

Q55 All respondents will receive a series of statements. After each statement, respondents will indicate if they strongly agree, somewhat agree, somewhat disagree, or strongly disagree. The order of statements will be rotated to counter biasing effects.

a This statement brings up the issue heard in focus groups that seat belts can cause harm to the wearer. Agreement with this particular statement not only means that the respondent believes belts can be harmful but also that the likelihood of harm may be sufficient to cancel out any perceived benefits. This comparison of costs and benefits is incorrect and works against belt use; however the statement has been heard a number of times. The survey will examine how pervasive the sentiment is, and where in the population it is concentrated.

b This statement examines respondents’ perceptions of local seat belt enforcement. However, it does so in the context of the willingness of law enforcement officers to enforce the law. Thus it measures the public’s perception of how important the law is to the enforcement community, and by extension, how important the public should consider the law.

c One explanation frequently given by people to explain why they didn’t wear seat belts on a particular trip was that they were only driving a short distance. In focus groups, some participants have asserted that any crashes that occur on such trips would involve less (collision) energy, thereby putting them in less danger if they didn’t wear their seat belts. Statement (c) examines the pervasiveness of this belief. The findings will be applied to strategies for part time belt users.

d This statement directly addresses whether people believe that seat belts are a valuable safety device. If they agree with the statement, but still don’t use seat belts all the time, it means that efforts should be directed at increasing the public’s awareness and attention to the fact that a crash can occur at any time.

e Statement (e) addresses the same issue as statement (c), but from the perspective of crash incidence rather than crash severity. It looks at the perceived risk of getting into a crash on a short trip by asking the level of agreement with the statement that most crashes occur within five miles of home.

f Statement (f) examines whether differences in seat belt usage between individuals and their friends result in conflict situations that raise anxiety. This explores one aspect of the influence that social pressure may have on the use or non-use of seat belts.

g Urging parents to be diligent in their oversight of the safety of their children is an important part of safety programs. Statement (g) examines the long-term impact of this diligence by probing whether current belt use habits are a result of earlier parental insistence that the respondent wear seat belts.

h An argument raised against primary seat belt laws is that law enforcement officers have better things to do than stop drivers for seat belt violations. Statement (h) assesses the pervasiveness of this sentiment.

i It’s clear from focus groups that anxiety plays a role in seat belt use. One possible reason for non-use is that the act of putting on a seat belt itself may raise anxieties by prompting the individual to think about the possibility of getting into a crash. Statement (i) will explore the extent to which seat belts provide this negative cue.

Speeding

Much of the crash problem results from driver error, with speed frequently playing a prominent role. This series of questions introduces fundamental behavioral and attitudinal issues concerning speed. The information will be used to assess how these issues relate to attitudes and behavior subsumed under occupant protection program areas. If problems are attacked on a superficial basis without consideration of associations between problem areas, then the strategies may be defeated by inadequate attention to the deeper context.

Q57/58 Questions 57 and 58 examine support for current speed restrictions by querying respondents on whether they believe that most speed limits are appropriate. Cognitive testing recommended that the question be split into speed limits on the highway (Q57) and those in residential areas (Q58).

Q59 Question 59 asks respondents their general opinion of the driving abilities of most other persons on the road. If respondents tend to perceive others as poor drivers, this may recommend development of programmatic strategies that promote safety as a defensive tactic.

Q60 Question 60 asks respondents how often they feel pressed by others to go over the speed limit. This provides information on the sensitivity of drivers to external pressures.

Q61/62 Questions 61 and 62 collect information on speeding behavior. The first item (Q61) obtains data on respondents' relative speed compared to other drivers. The second item (Q62) obtains data on respondents' typical absolute speed on the highway.

Air Bags

Air bags have become an important part of the protection system for drivers and passengers. A key safety objective has been to increase the prevalence of this protection throughout the vehicle fleet. To this effect, Federal legislation requires air bags in all new passenger vehicles.

Q63/64 Drivers are first asked if their usual vehicle has an air bag (Q63). If “yes,” then they will be asked the air bag location(s) in the vehicle. The information will provide an indication of the level of air bag protection the public has, and whether respondents know what protection they have.

Q67 It is important that the public understand that having an air bag does not obviate the need to wear a seat belt. Question 67 directly asks respondents if they still need to wear the belt when an air bag is present. The collected information will determine if an information campaign is needed to alert the public to that fact.

Alcohol Use

Alcohol use has a pervasive influence on the highway safety problem, with data implicating it as a major risk factor in passenger vehicle, motorcycle, and adult pedestrian crashes. It therefore is important to examine alcohol's relationship to different problems and issues across the spectrum of occupant protection areas. The objective is to identify connections between alcohol and occupant protection having implications for targeting, resource allocation, technology transfer, etc.

The alcohol items contained in this questionnaire are designed to segment the sample according to drinking type ("heavy" versus "light" versus "nondrinker"). The different drinking groups will be compared in terms of their attitudes, behavior, and knowledge in occupant protection areas.

Q.78 Question 78 asks respondents if they have consumed alcohol in the past 30 days. Those who have done so will proceed to a drinking frequency question. Those who did not will go to Question 79.

Q.79 Question 79 will be used to verify that persons who reported no drinking in the past 30 days can be classified as nondrinkers. These persons will be asked if they've consumed any alcohol in the past year. Persons who report having consumed at least some alcohol in the past year will receive a question on drinking pattern. The nondrinkers will be skipped to the next section.

Q.80 Question 80 obtains the drinking frequency of respondents, which will form one analytic measure of drinking type.

Q.81 Question 81 obtains the usual drinking quantity of respondents. This measure is a frequent predictor of problem drinking status.

Drinking and Driving

The rationale for incorporating drinking-and-driving questions mirrors that for the alcohol section above: to identify relationships between the use of alcohol and occupant protection that would be useful in planning countermeasure activity. Besides using these items to segment the sample into persons who drink-and-drive and those who don't, the questions serve as a bridge to surveys on attitudes toward DWI and the bases for drinking-and-driving decisions.

Q.82 Question 82 asks respondents whether they engaged in drinking-and-driving during the past 30 days. Because the question does not specify a threshold amount of time between the two component activities, respondents in effect are reporting drinking-and-driving according to their own definition of drinking-and-driving. The groups that emerge from this subjective definition will be compared on responses to questions in occupant protection areas.

Respondents who acknowledge drinking-and-driving in the past 30 days will be questioned about the frequency and intensity of the episodes. The rest of the sample will skip these questions.

Q.83 This item asks respondents the frequency of their drinking-and-driving in the past 30 days, which will be used to classify respondents.

Q.84 Question 84 asks respondents if they have driven in the past 30 days when they thought they had consumed too much alcohol to drive safely. As with earlier questions in this series, the data will be used to segment the sample and then compare the groups on responses to occupant protection questions.

Crash Experience

Crash experience may play a profound role in influencing attitudes and behavior related to driving and occupant protection. This section of the questionnaire obtains information to test that hypothesis. Moreover, the data will be used to identify high risk groups in need of targeted programmatic activity, as well as stress points on the emergency response and rehabilitation services infrastructure.

Q.86 The section begins with a question (Q86) asking if the respondent had ever been injured in a motor vehicle crash. Respondents are instructed to only count injuries that required medical attention. Those never having been injured are then skipped past all the remaining personal injury questions.

Q87 Question 87 identifies the number of times that respondents have been injured in crashes. The data will be used to identify high risk groups, and linked to other data in the survey for targeting purposes.

Q.88 Question 88 asks how long ago the (most recent) crash occurred. The data will be used to assess crash recency effects on attitudes and behavior, and to develop crash injury rates for specific periods of time.

Q88a NHTSA has in the past been asked for data on proximity of crashes to home. The MVOSS will collect information on the subject by asking respondents who were injured in a crash whether or not the crash occurred within 5 miles of where they lived at the time (Q88a), a distance considered a reasonable definition for a short trip.

Q.89/90 Question 89 asks whether the respondent was a driver, passenger, pedestrian, bicyclist or motorcyclist when involved in the crash. Question 90 then asks the drivers and passengers if the respondent was wearing a seat belt at the time of the crash. Combined with data collected by ensuing survey questions, these items provide information about injury outcomes associated with seat belt use for both drivers and passengers.

Q.91/92/93/a These items collect data on the immediate medical treatment received by the respondent. Information on the source of treatment (Q91), use of emergency medical transport (Q92), and hospitalization (Q93/93a) allow NHTSA to assess the demand placed on emergency medical services by vehicle crashes.

Q94/94a Besides immediate medical treatment, crash injuries can require continuing medical treatment and rehabilitation. Question 94 asks if follow-up treatment for their crash injuries was needed, while Question 94a asks where this follow-up treatment was obtained. Besides providing information on the extent to which crash injuries require follow-up attention and where that medical treatment occurs, this data will be combined with data from the previous questions to determine if seat belt use made a difference in whether follow-up care was needed.

Q.95 This question provides data on the seriousness of the injuries experienced by the respondent. It asks if the crash caused short term and long term incapacitation. This information will allow NHTSA to assess the impact of crash injuries on life activities.

Q.96 The previous question was asked in reference to the respondent’s most recent crash injury experience. This question will find out if the respondent was ever physically incapacitated from a vehicle crash. Thus Question 95 will provide the likelihood of being incapacitated from a crash injury, while Question 96 will show what proportion of the population has at some time experienced a crash injury that led to their being unable to perform some basic life activities.

Q.97 Those people never personally injured in a vehicle crash will be asked if they were ever in a crash involving serious injury or death, even though they were not personally injured. This item will provide data on the prevalence of serious crash experience within the total driving-age public. Data analysis will examine whether there is a correlation between the experience of being in a crash involving death or injury and the frequency of seat belt use.

Fatalism

Fatalism is an attitude or belief about the inevitability of events that differs in strength across demographic groups. There are also indications that it is related to safety behavior, including use of seat belts. This makes it important for NHTSA to assess the relationship between fatalistic attitudes and seat belt use, and to identify those pockets of the population where fatalism may be a problem.

Q.98 This item expresses a fatalistic attitude toward seat belt use by stating that the individual is powerless to influence events. Respondents are asked to agree or disagree with the statement. The data will be cross-tabulated against belt usage and demographic variables for problem identification and targeting purposes.

Demographic Data

Most of the remaining questions collect demographic information on respondents. The gathered data will be cross-tabulated against selected attitudes and behaviors to identify differences between major population groups. The results will provide NHTSA with the knowledge it needs to make decisions on how best to target programmatic activity towards specific audiences. The data also will be used to weight the sample so that it accurately represents the population of the United States.

Q.99 This item will record the sex of the respondent.

Q100 Question 100 will record the respondent's age.

Q.101 Question 101 will record the number of children under age 16 living in the household.

Q102/03 These questions will record the respondent's ethnicity (i.e., Hispanic origin, Q102) and race (Q103).

Q105 Question 105 will record the respondent's education level.

Q106 Question 106 will record the respondent's household income.

Respondent Height/Weight

Q108/109 These items ask the respondent’s height (Q.108) and weight (Q.109). The information will be compared to reported problems or discomfort in wearing seat belts to see if there are particular design problems which NHTSA should examine.

.