WASHINGTON — When Uber driver Oguzhan Beliren picks up passengers in his Hyundai Sonata, they almost always buckle up in the front seat, and if they don’t, he reminds them to.
But that’s not the case in the rear.
“I’d say that 70 to 80% of my passengers don’t put on a seat belt in the back seat,” Beliren said during a ride on a December evening. “People don’t think they’re required to, and I don’t ask them to do it in back, unless there are kids sitting there or if the weather is bad.”
While most people nowadays make sure children in the rear are in car seats or buckled up, it’s fairly common for adults in back not to wear seat belts, especially when they’re riding in taxis and ride-hailing vehicles such as Uber and Lyft, transportation safety officials say.
The consequences can be deadly.
In Portland, Oregon, for example, a ride-hailing passenger was killed in April when a pickup truck crossed a median and hit the Lexus SUV in which he was riding in the back seat. He was not wearing a seat belt and was ejected through the windshield.
With the explosive growth of ride-hailing in the United States, transportation safety advocates say there needs to be a cultural shift, and passengers should get into the habit of wearing their seat belts in back, just as they do in front.
Safety officials and ride-hailing companies are using social media and marketing campaigns to try to make that happen.
“Ride-sharing has changed this issue of buckling up in back,” said Jonathan Adkins, executive director of the Governors Highway Safety Association, which represents state highway safety offices. “People need to ..
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