Nationally, use of seat belts, as measured by belts worn by drivers and front-seat occupants, has risen from barely 14 percent in the late 1970s to 84.2 percent today, according to NHTSA's reporting.

Most Texans buckle up, yet too many crashes turn deadly because someone wasn’t wearing a seat belt. In 2024, 1,069 people who died in collisions on Texas roads were not buckled up.