SEATTLE (AP) – Seat belt use among American motorists continues to rise, with a record 80 percent of people buckling up in 2004, federal officials said Thursday.

The rate increased by one percentage point from 2003, according to the survey conducted in June.

Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta credited the 21 states that have laws allowing police to stop motorists for failing to buckle up. The District of Columbia and Puerto Rico also have such laws.

“It’s no coincidence that because eight out of 10 Americans are wearing their safety belts, we have also achieved the lowest traffic fatality rate on our nation’s highways since record-keeping began,” Mineta said at a news conference at Harborview Medical Center where the survey results were announced.

The 2004 survey found that belt use was highest in the West, at 84 percent, and the South, at 80 percent. Those regional rates were unchanged from the previous year.

Although there was slight improvement from last year, usage remained lowest in the Northeast, at 76 percent, and in the Midwest, at 77 percent.

No state-by-state figures were officially available Thursday. But NHTSA administrator Dr. Jeffrey Runge said New Hampshire, which has no seat belt law for adults, has the lowest usage rate. He did not say what that was, but last year it was 49.6 percent.

Hawaii was first in the nation with 95.1 percent, followed by Washington with 94.2 percent, according to Washington Sen. Patty Murray, who also was at the news conference.

Last year, Washington was first in the nation with 94.8 percent.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration began conducting seat belt use surveys in 1983, when the national use rate was 14 percent.

This year’s survey found that users of sport utility vehicles and vans had the highest rate of using seat belts, at 83 percent, while pickup truck drivers had the lowest, at 70 percent.

Mineta said the nation’s 80 percent rate will save 15,200 lives and $50 billion in costs associated with traffic crashes, injuries and deaths each year.

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On the Net:

http://www.dot.gov/index.cfm

AP-ES-09-16-04 2211EDT