Seat belts and disabled people

The work described in this report, was carried out by the Royal Association for Disability and Rehabilitation (RADAR) for the Transport and Road Research Laboratory (TRRL). The Motor Vehicles (Wearing of Seat Belts) Regulations 1982, which came into effect as Statutory Instrument 1202 on 31 January 1983, required people travelling in the front of a vehicle by law to wear a seat belt. The objectives of this study were : (1) to seek ways of ensuring that as many disabled motorists as possible were able to wear seat belts; (2) to assess the guidelines used by medical practitioners on the medical aspects of exemption from seat belt wearing; and (3) to examine the above regulations on seat belt wearing and make comment on them. A literature search was carried out, and a postal survey sent to 2,500 people who had applied for a free medical exemption certificate. Half of the 946 respondents requested help from RADAR in finding suitable accessories, which would enable them to comply with the law, and 230 commercially available accessories, clip devices, pulla belts, or drop links were distributed to overcome problems relating to reaching the seat belt anchorage point, the tightness of the belt, or inability to fasten or unfasten the belt. Results from the questionnaire also highlighted the need for disabled motorists to be given reasons if refused an exemption certificate, as a third of the respondents were not told why they did not qualify for exemption from seat belt use.