Pueblo & El Paso Counties rank near bottom for seatbelt usage among Colorado counties
EL PASO COUNTY, Colo. (KRDO) - When it comes to wearing a seatbelt, residents of Pueblo and El Paso Counties are some of the worst in the state.
That's according to Colorado State Patrol (CSP), which just released some seatbelt statistics for 2023.
According to CSP, the five counties with the lowest percentage of seatbelt usage in 2023 were:
- Jefferson County (73.5%)
- Pueblo County (74.46%)
- El Paso County (79.35%)
- Logan County (83.78%)
- Morgan County (84.24%)
“We can’t stress this enough: wearing a seat belt dramatically improves the chances that you will survive a car crash,” said Matthew C. Packard, chief of the Colorado State Patrol. “In 2023, 85% of occupants who survived fatal crashes in Colorado wore a seat belt. By comparison, only 15% of the unbuckled occupants survived.”
COLORADO’S SEAT BELT LAWS
- Adults — Colorado has a secondary enforcement law for adult drivers and front-seat passengers. Drivers can be ticketed for violating the seat belt law if they are stopped for another traffic violation.
- Teens— Colorado’s Graduated Drivers Licensing (GDL) law requires all drivers under 18 and their passengers, regardless of age, to wear seat belts. This is a primary enforcement, meaning teens can be pulled over simply for not wearing a seat belt or having passengers without seat belts.
- Children— Colorado's Child Passenger Safety law is a primary enforcement, meaning the driver can be stopped and ticketed if an officer sees an unrestrained or improperly restrained child under the age of 16 in the vehicle.
