The first Canadian "National Symposium on Road Safety" was held in Montreal in 1988. The main purpose was to assess the prevailing levels of safety for the various road users of Canada’ roads and highways and s identify issuesand related goals to pursue for realizing a safer national road transportation system. One of the main recommendations was a commitment to work towards increasingthe usagerates of occupant protection restraint systems (e.g., seat belts, child restraints). The reaction to this major goal identified was swift and decisive. A proposal -- The National Occupant Restraint Program (NORP), was preparedby the CanadianCouncil of Motor Transport Administrators (CCMTA) and presented to the federal and provincial ministers responsiblefor road safety in Septemberof 1989. The Council of Ministers endorsed the program’ target s objective of attaining a “95 percentrestraint usagerate by occupantsof light-duty motor vehicles* by 1995”.

Retrospective trend analyses of changes in seat belt usage rates during the six years of NORP demonstrate that the goal was quite realistic. Through National Seat Belt Use Surveys conducted annually by Transport Canada (1996) it was possible to monitor and assess improvements in occupant restraint usage. Two of the most significant and encouraging results revealed that national seat belt usage rates for drivers of passenger vehicles increasedfrom 73.9 % in 1989to 91.6 % in 1994 -- a percentageincreaseof about 24 % and very close to the 6-year target objective establishedby NORP, and the usagerate for occupantsof Iight-duty vehicles increased from 68 % to 87 % during the sameperiod resulting in a 28 % percentage increase.

The major issue that required addressing, however, was to evaluate any safety impacts that can be attributed to the NORP program. In particular, there is a need to know whether the observed increasesin seat belt usage ratesover the program period yielded significant benefits (i.e., reductions in fatalities and injuries for collision- involved motor vehicle occupants),and if so, to measure the extent and value of thesebenefits towards the ultimate goal -- improving road safety. These general objectives formed the basis for the researchstudy reportedon in this paper.