'Risking their lives': Rural seatbelt use lags in Sask.

It's been 40 years since seatbelt laws were passed in Saskatchewan, but some rural residents still aren't buckling up.

According to SGI, 12 per cent of rural drivers and passengers fail to wear seatbelts. That compares with just five per cent in cities.

Last year, 25 people died in vehicles because they weren't wearing a seatbelt. Another 155 were injured.

Those statistics are worrisome to Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities president Ray Orb.

"I guess it should be a bit of a concern that people are travelling, risking their lives and the lives of their family," he said. "I would have thought most people would wear seatbelts. It's a little bit of a surprise to me."

Orb thinks farming culture could at least partially explain the lower rate of seatbelt use among rural residents.

"I guess it's a bit of a rural culture that because you're working on farms a lot, working on farm machinery, that doesn't necessarily require you to wear seatbelts," he said.

Failure to wear a seatbelt can result in a $175 fine for the driver of the vehicle, no matter which occupant fails to buckle up.

Saskatchewan introduced a seatbelt law in 1977, one year after Ontario and Quebec.

The number of deaths and injuries due to lack of seatbelts is still too high, say SGI officials, but it's far better than previous decades. In 1986, for example, lack of seatbelts were the cause of 111 fatalities.