It has been over 50 years since wearing a seatbelt in your car was made compulsory in every Australian state and territory. That’s half a century, or 600 months, or more than 18 thousand days of better-secured and safer road users.
But, here, now, in 2025, some people still don’t get it.
In data presented by the Victorian Government, a staggering 35.4 per cent of all car drivers and passengers involved in an accident, who were not wearing a seatbelt, since 2012 were either killed or seriously injured.
That’s roughly 2500 people whose lives, and the lives of their families, have been tragically altered for ignoring just one simple ‘click’.
Perhaps more confronting is that of the 330 non-belted fatalities, one quarter were aged between 30 and 39. Arguably, an age and maturity that should simply know better.
Most of us do the right thing.
The data, which notes that 423,078 individuals were involved in road accidents in Victoria between 2012 and 2024, provides insight into the types and ages of road trauma victims, as well as the circumstances around the incidents.
Just over 63 per cent of all records relate to drivers, with a further 21 per cent as car passengers. Of these, just under 68 per cent were wearing a seatbelt or child restraint properly.
According to the data, 28.5 per cent of vehicle occupants were ‘unknown’ as to their seatbelt status, but the majority of these records indicate minor or no injuries, suggesting that the persons involved were out of their respective vehicles when the data was collected.
Summarily, just 2.5 per cent of records note victims who were not appropriately restrained. So yes, the data is comforting in that 97.5 per cent of all recorded individuals were using seatbelts, but it is the risk of injury to those who were not that is truly concerning.
Consider this context.
Of the 230,515 vehicle occupants represented by the data as specifically wearing a seatbelt, just 1190 (0.5 per cent) were fatally injured. More telling, perhaps, is that 48 per cent were not injured.
Of the 7056 occupants specified as not wearing a seatbelt, 4.7 per cent (330) were killed and 31 per cent seriously injured.
To use the same metric, serious or fatal injuries account for 35.4 per cent of all records where drivers or passengers were unrestrained, but just 15.6 per cent of those who were. The ratio of fatalities alone is 806 per cent higher when seatbelts are not worn.
While the rate of fatalities is dropping, from 40 in 2012 to 18 in 2024 (with a low of 15 in 2017), an average of over 24 highly preventable deaths, and significantly more (143) serious injuries, over the past five years in Victoria alone should be enough to warrant every Australian driver or passenger to rethink a decision not to use a seatbelt.
Speaking to Drive, a Victoria Police representative noted that “we continue to see far too many motorists failing to buckle up and keep themselves safe behind the wheel.
Wearing a seatbelt is one of the simplest and potentially lifesaving measures you can take when driving a vehicle.
It is an offence not to wear, or incorrectly wear, a seatbelt for both drivers and passengers.”
Victoria was the first state in Australia to require seatbelts fitted to new cars from 1964 onward. By 1969, all new cars sold in Australia were required to have front belts fitted, and in 1970, Victoria became the first place in the world to make wearing seatbelts mandatory.
With over 20 years of experience in digital publishing, James Ward has worked within the automotive landscape since 2007 and brings experience from the publishing, manufacturer and lifestyle side of the industry together to spearhead Drive's multi-media content direction.
