Only 15% of drivers in Ukraine use seat belts - survey

Deputy Director of the Center for Democracy and Rule of Law and Coordinator of the Campaign "For Safe Roads" Olesia Kholopik said this at Ukrinform at a press conference titled "Road Safety - from Strategy to Action Plan."

"According to studies conducted in 2017, only 15% of drivers use seat belts. At the same time, figures are even lower for passengers on front and rear seats. This is the lowest figure in Europe," Kholopik said.

In her opinion, one of the factors of mass neglect of seat belt rules is a very low amount of fine for this offense.

"In Ukraine, a fine for violating the rule of a seat belt attached in the car is 51 hryvnias. This is a very small amount. It creates the idea that this rule of having the seat belt attached is optional, insignificant, that it can be violated. This leads to the fact that drivers and passengers in Ukraine massively ignore the use of seat belts," Kholopik said.

She emphasized that seat belts are the easiest way to save lives in a road accident.

"A seat belt saves lives during a head-on, side-impact collision, roll-over. It has been proved that even in a fatal accident, the chances of survival for a person who fastened a seat belt grows to 50%. If drivers and passengers in Ukraine used seat belts in at least 90% of cases, then about a thousand lives of our fellow citizens would have been saved annually," Kholopik said.

op