The importance of older adults always wearing a seat belt
'We're trying to educate on the crash trends that we're seeing and so that people can make behavioral changes to help keep themselves safe,' said Utah Highway Patrol Lt. Cameron Roden.
And while it is important for everyone to wear their seat belts, crashes involving unbuckled people are most common among two age groups — children and older adults.
During the day, these incidents with unbuckled individuals are most often seen for ages 5 to 14 and 80 to 84; but at nighttime the age ranges change to 10-19 and 75-84.
During Thursday's media availability at Mt. Olympus Senior Center, public safety officials invited one person from those age groups to demonstrate how to properly buckle themselves into their seats.
Jacob Winkler, 7, demonstrated buckling his seat belt while sitting in a booster seat, and Mt. Olympus resident Skip Olsen helped show how to properly fit a seat belt and practiced using devices that help those who aren't able to reach their seat belt on their own.
'The rate of not using your seat belt in our older adult population has increased,' said Brooke Pohlman, a certified driver rehab specialist and occupational therapist.
The 'Click It or Ticket' campaign is a part of a nationwide initiative encouraging people to always wear their seat belt.
Utah has a primary seat belt law which was enacted in 2015, allowing a law enforcement officer to pull someone over for not wearing a seat belt as the primary offense. This means that they don't need another offense, just the seat belt violation.
'Our overall message is, no matter where you're going, no matter how long the trip, short trip, day or night, always wear that seat belt,' Roden said.
Utah's seat belt use rate in 2024 was 90.7%, which is a decrease from 92.4% in 2023, officials said Thursday.
Pohlman emphasized why wearing seatbelts is so important for older adults.
'If there are even fender benders, and, low speed accidents cause such damage to our older adults who can be frail. Sometimes our bones take longer to heal. A lot of older adults have comorbidities, and so an accident, even at low speeds, can really cause major injuries to a person in that situation that's older and maybe a little more frail, our bodies just don't heal as quickly as they did when we were younger,' she said.
So far in 2025, Utah has seen 13 unrestrained fatal crashes with a total of 13 unrestrained fatalities, according to DPS. At this time last year, there were 19 unrestrained fatal crashes and 22 unrestrained fatalities.
There have been 64 total fatal crashes and 64 total fatalities in the state over the first five months of 2025.
Jamie Troyer, a trauma outreach coordinator from the University of Utah, shared that often times older adults don't wear seat belts because of mobility or comfortability.
Mobility comes into play as some people aren't able to reach the seat belts, but there are devices that can help with that issue.
Some people also don't know that they can adjust their seat belt to make it more comfortable.
'So, just ensuring that you're making sure your seat belt actually fits right, helps a lot for you to wear it more often,' Troyer said.
The shoulder belt should sit across your collarbone, run down the middle of your chest and stay away from your neck.
The lap belt should rest across your hips and lie below your stomach, never across your belly.
Never place the shoulder belt behind your back or under your arm.
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