In 2023, at least 10,484 people died in car crashes in the United States while not wearing a seatbelt. That accounts for 44% of all passenger vehicle occupant deaths that year. Buckling up in the front seat of a passenger car reduces the risk of fatal injury by 45%, meaning roughly half of those deaths could have been prevented by a simple click.
The Latest Numbers
The U.S. recorded 40,901 total traffic fatalities in 2023. Of those, 23,959 were occupants of passenger vehicles. Among the passenger vehicle deaths where restraint use was known, 10,484 people were unrestrained and 10,816 were restrained. The remaining 11% had unknown restraint status. That near-even split between belted and unbelted deaths is striking when you consider that roughly 92% of Americans do wear seatbelts. The small minority who skip the belt account for a wildly disproportionate share of the deaths.
Why Unbelted Crashes Are So Deadly
The biggest danger of riding without a seatbelt is ejection. About 44% of unrestrained occupants in fatal crashes are thrown partially or fully from the vehicle, compared to just 6% of those wearing a belt. Being ejected dramatically increases the chance of fatal head and spinal injuries, contact with the road surface, or being struck by the vehicle itself.
Even in crashes where the occupant stays inside the car, an unbelted body becomes a projectile. At highway speeds, an unrestrained person can slam into the steering column, dashboard, windshield, or other passengers with a force equivalent to several tons. A seatbelt spreads crash forces across the strongest parts of the skeleton (the hips and chest), keeping the body in the seat where airbags can do their job.
Nighttime Driving Carries the Highest Risk
Fatal crashes split almost evenly between day and night, yet only about 25% of all driving happens after dark. That means the fatality rate per mile driven is roughly three times higher at night. Seatbelt non-use is a major reason why.
During daytime crashes, 46% of people killed were unbelted. At night, that figure jumps to 64%. The worst window is midnight to 3 a.m., when 71% of those killed were not wearing a seatbelt. The fatality rate per mile during those hours is 28 times higher than during the afternoon rush (3 to 6 p.m.). Alcohol impairment, fatigue, and lower visibility all compound the danger, and people who skip the belt at night are disproportionately involved in those high-risk scenarios.
The pattern holds across both sexes but is more pronounced for men. At night, 68% of male fatalities were unrestrained, compared to 55% of female fatalities. During the day, those figures drop to 51% and 39%, respectively.
Teens and Young Adults Are Most Vulnerable
Among teen drivers and passengers aged 16 to 19 killed in car crashes in 2020, 56% were not wearing a seatbelt. That rate is significantly higher than for adults over 25. Observational studies consistently show that people aged 16 to 24 buckle up less often than older drivers, and the gap widens further when alcohol is involved. Among drivers aged 15 to 20 killed after drinking and driving, 62% were unbelted.
In nighttime crashes specifically, nearly 70% of fatalities in the 16-to-34 age range were unrestrained. For those aged 35 to 54, the figure was still above 60%. The combination of youth, nighttime driving, and no seatbelt is one of the deadliest patterns in traffic safety data.
Rear Seat Passengers Are Not Safer Without a Belt
Many people assume the back seat is inherently safe enough to skip the belt. The data says otherwise. A standard three-point seatbelt reduces the risk of death by 54% for rear outboard passengers (the window seats) in cars, and by 58% for center rear passengers. In SUVs, trucks, and vans, rear seatbelts are even more effective, reducing fatality risk by 73 to 75% regardless of seating position.
An unbelted rear passenger also endangers everyone else in the car. In a crash, an unbuckled person in the back seat can be thrown forward into the front-seat occupants with enormous force, turning a survivable crash into a fatal one for the person ahead of them.
How Seatbelt Laws Affect the Numbers
Not all states enforce seatbelt laws the same way. In states with “primary enforcement” laws, police can pull you over solely for not wearing a seatbelt. In states with “secondary enforcement,” an officer can only ticket you for being unbelted if you’ve been stopped for another violation first. The difference matters: states with secondary enforcement have a passenger vehicle fatality rate 9 to 15% higher than primary enforcement states, depending on whether you measure per mile driven or per capita.
Primary enforcement laws consistently lead to higher belt-use rates, which directly translates to fewer deaths. The effect is especially strong among the groups least likely to buckle up voluntarily, including young men and nighttime drivers.