ATLANTA – Emory researchers are doing their part to monitor safety on Georgia’s roadways, thanks to a grant from the Georgia Governor’s Office of Highway Safety (GOHS). GOHS has awarded the Injury Prevention Research Center at Emory (IPRCE) $301,432 to measure the rates of seat belt use and track distracted drivers.
This will be the fourth year that IPRCE has researched seat belt usage and driver distraction using roadside observations.
“Our past observations found that seat belt use for drivers and right front passengers in Georgia during daylight hours increased slightly from 87.6% in 2023 to 88.8% in 2024,” says Jonathan Rupp, PhD, director of IPRCE and vice chair of Innovation and Discovery, Emergency Medicine, Emory University. “Over the same time period, rates of hand-held cell phone use by Georgia drivers were relatively unchanged (6.8% in 2023 vs. 6.6% in 2024). We hope this data will help the state target efforts to increase seat belt usage and decrease distraction.” Rupp is also the principal investigator of this research grant.
Trained roadside observers will go to 400 sites in 20 counties throughout Georgia between May and August 2025 to collect data. At busy intersections, they will document who is wearing a seat belt in the front seat and who is not, and if a driver is distracted. Those results, including demographics such as age and gender, are shared with GOHS and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to implement or promote programs and policies to increase seat belt use and decrease distracted driving.
