ROME – Three out of ten Italians do not use the seat belt correctly. Both in the driver’s seat and for the passenger in the front seats. Eight out of ten Italians ignore the use of seat belts on the rear seats. This is the most frequent serious infringement of the Highway Code, according to a research conducted by Anas “on the field”, monitoring some road sections of the Peninsula, including the Grande Raccordo Anulare of Rome.
The research also reveals other dangerous behaviors: 5 out of 10 Italians do not use safety devices for children, in particular child seats. On the use of the mobile phone, at least one Italian out of 10 behaves incorrectly, not using the hands-free and / or headphones to talk without holding the mobile phone. Among the other behaviors that can be sanctioned, that of sending and receiving messages while driving, even watching videos and messages from social networks while driving the vehicle.
Then there are other behaviors that present serious risks for the safety of those who drive on Italian roads. One of these is the lack of use of directional arrows: 5 out of 10 Italians do not signal their intention to overtake and at least 8 out of ten do not use arrows to signal the return after passing another car.
Even more serious is the behavior during overtaking: eight out of ten Italians do not take into account the solid line drawn to delimit the two carriageways and overtake the other cars by invading the opposite lane where this is expressly forbidden.
All these wrong behaviors are at the basis – together with the use of alcohol and drugs – of a high percentage of very serious accidents that take place on our roads and which, unfortunately, cause a high number of victims and serious injuries due to the accidents that occur. caused precisely by the lack of attention to these safety regulations. It must be said that the penalties for these behaviors, albeit high (up to the withdrawal of the license and the seizure of the vehicle) do not seem to lead the Italians to behave more attentively towards road safety, also due to the fact that the controls, although existing, they are not sufficient to make motorists withdraw from this type of extremely dangerous infringement.
Here are the main infringements monitored by the investigation carried out by Anas:
Improper use of mobile phones: 1 in 10 drivers
Failure to use seat belts: 3 out of ten
Failure to use front passenger seat belts: 3 out of 10
Failure to use seat belts in rear seats: 8 out of 10
Failure to use child safety devices: 5 out of 10
Failure to use arrows when overtaking: 5 out of 10
Failure to use arrows when returning from overtaking: 7 out of 10
Road overtaking in the presence of a continuous line: 8 out of 1
.