Buckle Up--It’s the Law (Except in Hollywood)

As if there weren’t enough strikes against Hollywood already, Michigan State University recently released results from a survey conducted late last year proving that movie characters are too wrapped up in their own drama to remember their seat belts.

Sponsored by the American Coalition for Traffic Safety (ACTS) and led by Bradley S. Greenberg, MSU professor of telecommunication and communication, the film survey found that only 23% of drivers and just 14% of passengers on screen buckled up in 1996. That year’s Top 50 grossing films, minus animation, period pieces and sci-fi, were the basis for the study.

Natural disaster-based films like “Independence Day” and “Twister” topped the charts. “In ‘Independence Day,’ there were nine scenes in which characters were shown in cars,” Greenberg said. “In none of these scenes were any drivers shown wearing safety belts, and in none of those scenes were any passengers shown wearing safety belts.”

“Mission: Impossible” was not included since it contained no scenes with car rides, but “Phenomenon,” the John Travolta fantasy, was hardly conservative in regarding safety. Greenberg reported that only one car scene of 10 showed a seat-belt wearer--in this case, the driver.

In general, MSU findings reported that films with PG-13 and R ratings were less likely to show characters wearing safety belts than G or PG, and actors portraying teenagers took their chances more often than adults. In this instance, the study was true to life: the teens-through-20s age group has higher motor vehicle accident and death rates than its elders. Incidentally, male and female characters were equally safe (or unsafe) in the tallies.

ACTS, composed of the GM, Ford and Chrysler foundations, was the instigator of the survey, and asked the MSU team, led by Greenberg, to set it up. “It’s one of the surveys that for the first time looks at positive behavior instead of negative,” Greenberg said. “This is a question of finding not enough of this behavior, as opposed to studying instances of sex or drugs, where there’s usually too much.” A similar study of belt wearers on TV will be conducted later this year.

When asked whether he was surprised by the low numbers of safe on-screen drivers, Greenberg said, “I didn’t have a good guess. I was surprised by it being less than 50%, but I was surprised even more by the lack of [safety belt] use by the passengers.”

In Hollywood, however, the survey is probably not going to be making huge waves. Producer John Davis was cautiously supportive when asked about the findings: “I think if you can use the medium to promote social responsibility, then that’s a great opportunity.”

But he pointed out that action films would seem unrealistic if they appeared too cautious.

Greenberg remarked that on California highways, encouraged by primary enforcement laws with strict penalties, about 80% of drivers regularly wear their seat belts. He found it particularly surprising that the movies surveyed--most of which were made within the state--did not follow the strict California law.

States with no such laws, like Michigan, for example, have significantly fewer belt-wearers--the average being 60%.

So are moviegoers going to drive recklessly out of theater parking lots if Will Smith isn’t buckled safely in his tank? Not exactly.

But now that the results are out, Greenberg says, “I hope that automakers suggest to movie-makers that it’s no less attractive for heroes and heroines to be wearing seat belts.”