A third of young people killed in car crashes in past five years were not wearing a seatbelt

See more This is Money on Google - save us as a Preferred Source Updated: 05:12 EDT, 23 September 2026 More than one in three young people killed in car crashes in the past five years were not wearing seatbelts, new analysis has found.Between 2021-2025, 35.6 per cent of car occupants aged 17 to 29 who were killed were not wearing the safety device, the AA Charitable Trust for Road Safety and Environment revealed.The proportion among that age range is around 45 per cent higher than the all-age rate.It became compulsory to wear seatbelts in the front seat on 31 January 1983. By 2012, the safety device - invented by Volvo - had helped reduce fatalities on British roads by 60 per cent. 35.65% of car occupants aged 17 to 29 who were killed between 2021-2025 were not wearing a seatbelt, new AA Charitable Trust for Road Safety & Environment analysis has foundYoung men have been found to face especially high risk on the road. Male car drivers aged 17 to 24 are around four times as likely to be killed or seriously injured as car drivers aged 25 and over, the latest government data shows.Generally, unbelted drivers on short trips (under one mile) are more than twice as likely to be killed or seriously injured than those unbelted on long trips (100+ miles), the data shows.And proportionately, 75 per cent more unbelted car occupants are killed in urban areas than those on rural roads.The figures show serious collisions involving young drivers have distinctive patterns.Almost half of those killed or seriously injured in younger-driver collisions occurred on rural roads, while casualties peak on weekdays between 4pm and 7pm but, as a proportion of car collisions, are highest during the late evening and early morning.However, analysis of all car occupants unbelted shows a greater proportion of occupant fatalities unbelted happen on urban roads (37.2 per cent) than motorways (23.7 per cent) or rural roads (21.3 per cent).Car occupant unbelted deaths are more than twice as likely in the evening or night (39.4 per cent) than during the day (17.1 per cent).Edmund King OBE, director of The AA Charitable Trust for Road Safety, said: 'These are shocking figures. More than one in three young people killed in cars were not wearing a seatbelt. 'Behind every statistic is a life cut short and families and friends left devastated. Yet in a crash you are twice as likely to die if you don’t wear a seatbelt.'Seatbelts are the simplest and most effective safety measure. Clicking one into place takes seconds, yet too many young drivers and passengers are still taking unnecessary and fatal risks.'Young male drivers are around four times as likely to be killed or seriously injured as older drivers. Not wearing a seatbelt stacks the odds even further against them.' In 1959 Volvo introduced a 3-point belt in the front of Amazon and PV 544 models as standard in Sweden and Nordic marketsWhen was the seatbelt invented? In 1959 Volvo introduced a 3-point belt (the seatbelt we know today) in the front of Amazon and PV 544 models as standard in Sweden and Nordic markets.As early as the 1930s, people were using lap belts and two-point belts to keep themselves safe while driving.Then in 1959, Volvo introduced a three-point belt (the seatbelt of today) in the front seats of its Amazon and PV 544 models as standard in Sweden.In 1967, new cars in the UK had to be fitted with three-point front seatbelts – and a year later all 1965 and onwards cars had to be retrofitted with them.But it wasn't until 1983 that drivers and front-seat passengers legally had to belt up. Even then, it only became compulsory for children aged 14 and under to wear a seatbelt in the rear of a car in 1989.Then two years later in 1991, it became a legal requirement for all vehicle occupants to wear the safety devices.