“Click, Click Drive”

Young drivers face the greatest risk

More than one in three young people killed in car crashes were not wearing seatbelts, stark new analysis highlighted by the AA Charitable Trust for Road Safety & Environment reveals today.^*

Across the latest five years, 2021–2025, 35.6% of car occupants aged 17–29 who were killed were not wearing a seatbelt.

That compares with 24.6% of car occupant fatalities across all ages – meaning the proportion among 17–29-year-olds was around 45% higher than the all-age rate.

The worrying figures demonstrate why there can be no let-up in efforts to persuade young drivers and passengers to belt up.

The figures are released as The AA Trust prepares to launch the next phase of its #BeltUp campaign, specifically aimed at reaching young people – and particularly young men – who still travel unbelted.

Exclusive analysis and latest Department for Transport statistics add to the disturbing picture. Between 2021 and 2025, 14% of younger car drivers aged 17–24 involved in killed or seriously injured (KSI) collisions were not wearing a seatbelt – the highest proportion of any age group. The figure was 10% across all ages.

Young men face an especially high risk on the road. The latest government figures show that male car drivers aged 17–24 are around four times as likely to be killed or seriously injured as car drivers aged 25 and over.

In 2025, around a fifth of all KSI casualties from collisions involving cars were in collisions involving a young car driver.

Seatbelt fact file

Our seatbelt fact file shows:

• 14% of young drivers killed or seriously injured were unbelted – highest of any age group
• Young male drivers aged 17–24 around four times as likely to be killed or seriously injured as drivers aged 25 and over
• Unbelted drivers on short trips (under 1 mile) more than twice as likely to be killed or seriously injured than those unbelted on long trips (100+ miles)
• Proportionately 75% more unbelted car occupants are killed in urban areas than those on rural roads

Edmund King OBE, Director of The AA Charitable Trust for Road Safety, said:

“These are shocking figures. More than one in three young people killed in cars were not wearing a seatbelt. Behind every statistic is a life cut short and families and friends left devastated. Yet in a crash you are twice as likely to die if you don’t wear a seatbelt.

“Seatbelts are the simplest and most effective safety measure. Clicking one into place takes seconds, yet too many young drivers and passengers are still taking unnecessary and fatal risks.

“Young male drivers are around four times as likely to be killed or seriously injured as older drivers. Not wearing a seatbelt stacks the odds even further against them.

“We need to challenge the idea that it is somehow OK not to belt up on a short journey in an urban area, in the back seat, or when travelling with mates. The laws of physics don’t change because you’re only going down the road.

“Our message to young drivers is simple: Don’t move until everyone is belted up. Click, Click Drive. And to passengers: look out for yourself and your mates. Wherever you sit, however short the journey, #BeltUp.”

Young people, urban, at night, disproportionately at risk

Averaged across 2021–2025, 64% of KSI casualties from collisions involving at least one younger car driver were male.

The figures also show that serious collisions involving young drivers have distinctive patterns. Almost half (49%) of KSI casualties in younger-driver collisions occurred on rural roads, while casualties peak on weekdays between 4pm and 7pm but, as a proportion of car collisions, are highest during the late evening and early morning.

However, analysis of all car occupants unbelted shows a greater proportion of occupant fatalities unbelted happen on urban roads (37.2%) than motorways (23.7%) or rural roads (21.3%). Car occupant unbelted deaths are more than twice as likely in the evening or night (39.4%) than during the day (17.1%).

Hence this #BeltUp campaign is aimed at younger drivers and passengers, predominantly male, doing short journeys, at night, in urban areas.

#BeltUp: the next chapter

The AA Trust has been campaigning to increase seatbelt wearing among young drivers and passengers through its #BeltUp campaign.

In April 2025, the Trust joined forces with Basingstoke Town FC in an innovative campaign which transformed the club’s traditional vertical shirt stripes into diagonal stripes resembling seatbelts.

The one-off kit was worn by the club’s men’s and women’s teams, while the #BeltUp message appeared throughout the stadium. The campaign was backed by football legend Ian Wright and featured on The Overlap podcast.

That followed the launch of the AA Trust’s renewed seatbelt campaign in January 2025, which encouraged young passengers to “Belt Up in the Back”.

Now the AA Trust is preparing the next phase of #BeltUp, with a new campaign designed specifically to get the message in front of young drivers and passengers – particularly young men – in a way that demands their attention.

Further details of the radical campaign will be revealed shortly.

Edmund King added:

“We know simply repeating traditional road safety messages isn’t enough. If we want young people to listen, we have to find new ways to reach them.

“We’ve taken #BeltUp into football. Now we’re preparing to take the message somewhere new.

“Watch this space – and in the meantime, #BeltUp.”