This led to the manufacturers focusing more on performance, and comfort (www.driverstechnology.co.uk). .
By 1970, vehicle related deaths were said to be declining. This meant that the vehicle safety committee's tried to turn their attention more to the adoption of mandatory seatbelt laws. Finally, by the year 1984, "NHTSA proposed that automatic restraint systems be required in new vehicles unless two-thirds of the U.S. population was covered by a mandatory seatbelt law by September 1989" (www.prevention ). Since then, many more seatbelt laws and regulations have been passed. For example, anyone under the age of 18 in New Hampshire must wear a seatbelt, or else the driver will be fined. .
Since 1989, highway fatalities have been declining, mostly due to the use of seat belts. Forty-eight of the fifty states have seat belt laws, yet only 9 states have laws in which the driver can be pulled over and fined if themselves, or a passenger is not wearing a seat belt (www.nhtsa.dot.gov). As of this time, seat belt usage is at an all-time high in the United States, with a huge 75 percent of the population wearing their seat belt (www.prevention ). .
There are many reasons that seat belts should be required to wear. Seat belts are your best protection in a crash. They are designed so that the strongest area of your body absorbs the forces in a crash. They also keep you in place so that your head, face and chest are less likely to strike the windshield, dashboard, other vehicle interiors or other passengers. They also keep you from being thrown out of a vehicle (www.carsp.ca). .
Another reason that there should be mandatory seat belt laws is because "Based on the calculations, researchers estimated that 12,178 people died from 1995 through 2002 because states failed to put in place primary seat belt laws" (www.cbsnews.com). For example, of those estimated 12,178 people, the deaths ranged from 33 people in Rhode Island, to 157 people from Massachusetts, all the way to 1,333 people in Florida.