A survey has recently been carried out, undertaken by four hundred volunteers who studied the driving habits of 40,000 drivers, over a three week period. They observed that one in twenty drivers is not using a seatbelt. However in practise the figure would be far higher than this because a considerable number of drivers, who choose not to belt up, drape the belt across themselves to give the appearance of using the seatbelt. This is more difficult to detect.

Quite why these drivers having gone to that trouble, don’t click the seatbelt into place, is difficult to undestand. It would be interesting to know which vehicles these drivers are in, presumably older cars; many modern cars such as the Alfa Romeo, have a seatbelt warning buzzer that is so loud and relentless, few people drivers could stand it.

The volunteers observed that one in twenty five cars have a broken brake light. They also said that almost 33% of drivers fail to indicate when they are turning. Motorist using their mobile phone whilst driving is not as widespread as previously thought; only 0.23% of the motorists observed, were seen using their mobile.

Prior to this survey being carried out the AA carried out an opinion poll asking over 11,000 of its members what they thought the results would be. Over 80% thought that 5% of drivers would be observed using their mobile rather than 0.23%. In general their perception of road user’s behaviour was worse than it is in practice; suggesting that on the whole motorists do tend to drive safely.