Evaluation of Kentucky's "Buckle Up Kentucky : It's the Law & It's Enforced" 2007 campaign.
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Summary
This report evaluates the effectiveness of Kentucky’s 2007 “Buckle Up Kentucky: It’s the Law & It’s Enforced” campaign, which coincided with the state’s transition from secondary to primary seat belt enforcement. The study aimed to determine whether the combination of public information, paid media, and concentrated enforcement significantly increased seat belt usage and reduced crash severity. The research was conducted by the Kentucky Transportation Center in cooperation with the Kentucky State Police. The evaluation employed a multi-method approach including observational surveys, telephone surveys, enforcement data analysis, and crash statistics. Observational data were collected at 21 representative sites across the state during five periods from September 2006 to May 2007 to track usage changes before and after the enforcement campaign. Telephone surveys were conducted before (February–March 2007) and after (June–July 2007) the campaign, targeting general drivers and an oversample of pickup truck drivers. Enforcement activities, including saturated patrols and checkpoints, were documented for the two-week period surrounding Memorial Day 2007. Additionally, fatal and injury crash data from the enforcement period were compared to averages from the previous three years. The results indicated a substantial increase in seat belt usage during the enforcement campaign. Usage rates at the sample sites rose from 67.6% in the 2006 baseline to 76.2% during the May 2007 enforcement period. This represented an 8.3% increase over the previous year and a 3.7% increase over the previous high recorded in 2003. Enforcement was intensive, with 22,846 seat belt citations issued during the two-week period, a significant increase from the 4,704 citations issued in 2006. Telephone surveys revealed that publicity was effective, with statistically significant increases in driver awareness of the campaign and the perceived likelihood of receiving a ticket. Over 90% of drivers were aware of the new primary enforcement law. Crash data showed that the number of fatal crashes, fatalities, injury crashes, and injuries during the 2007 enforcement period were lower than the three-year average. The study concludes that the enactment of primary enforcement law, combined with publicity and active enforcement, resulted in a substantial increase in seat belt usage. However, the data showed minimal usage increase during the public information phase alone, indicating that enforcement is critical for behavior change. The authors note that usage rates declined after the campaign ended, suggesting that sustained enforcement and publicity are necessary to maintain high compliance levels. The findings support the efficacy of primary enforcement laws and coordinated enforcement campaigns in improving traffic safety outcomes.
Key finding
Safety belt usage for all front-seat occupants increased from 67.6 percent in 2006 to 76.2 percent during the 2007 enforcement campaign, accompanied by a reduction in fatal and injury crashes compared to previous years.
Methodology
mixed_methods
Provenance
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| Stage | Outcome | Tool | Model | Prompt | Attempts | Completed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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| summarize | success | llm | qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant | summ-v5 | 3 | 2026-06-10 |
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| verify | success | — | — | — | 2 | 2026-06-10 |
Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant on 2026-06-10; verification: verified.
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Information type
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- Applied Guidance: countermeasure evaluation, policy recommendations
- Empirical Findings: observational prevalence