The B.C. Coroners Service is urging all drivers and passengers in motor vehicles to use their seat belts at all times.

The Coroners Service has recently completed a detailed study of fatal motor vehicle crashes in B.C.'s interior, that shows a high proportion of those who were involved in motor vehicle accidents, died because they were not wearing seat belts.

Although numerous studies by the RCMP and Transport Canada show that at least 90 per cent of British Columbians wear their seat belts, the Coroners Service study showed that fewer than 60 per cent of those who died were wearing them at the time they crashed.

Chief Coroner Lisa Lapointe noted that studies throughout North America have consistently concluded that wearing a seat belt correctly is the most effective single step vehicle occupants can take to prevent death in the event of a crash. The deaths of those who died despite correct seat belt use confirm that some crashes are so devastating that no amount of safety equipment can save the occupants.

However, coroners who attended the crashes described many examples in which seat belt use would almost certainly have saved lives; people who were thrown through windshields, thrown around inside a vehicle or ejected from a vehicle.

The study mirrors numerous others which show that failure to wear a seat belt significantly increases the risk of serious injury and death, independent of other factors in the crash.

It looked in detail at fatal motor vehicle crashes during 2010 in the Interior of B.C., that resulted in a total of 85 deaths.

In the 85 cases, only 47 per cent were wearing seat belts at the time of the crash, 41 per cent were definitely not and seatbelt usage was unknown in 12 per cent of the cases.

The Coroners Service is continuing work on similar studies in other regions of the province. The first study was done in the interior, because coroners there had noted a high proportion of people not wearing their seat belts in the crashes they were investigating.