Washington ? More people are buckling up when they get in their vehicles, according to a nationwide survey released today.

The survey, conducted in June, said seat belt use in the United States was at 79 percent, four percentage points higher than the year before.

“This is absolutely beyond my wildest expectations,” said National Highway Traffic Safety Administration chief Jeffrey Runge. NHTSA had hoped for 78 percent.

Runge was to announce the numbers today at a meeting of the Governor’s Highway Safety Assn. in New Orleans.

The survey found that sport utility vehicle and van users have the highest use rates, at 83 percent, while pickup truck drivers have the lowest rates, at 69 percent.

Seat belt usage was highest in the West, at 84 percent, and the South, at 80 percent. It was lowest in the Midwest, at 75 percent, and the Northeast, at 74 percent.

The survey also found that belt use was 6 percent higher in states with primary seat belt laws, which allow police to ticket occupants solely for failing to wear a seat belt. Twenty states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico have primary belt laws; their average usage rate was 83 percent.

The usage rate this year is more than five times as much as in 1983, when NHTSA first began conducting seat belt use surveys. The country’s seat belt usage rate that year was 14 percent.

Runge said the increase in belt use would save 1,000 lives and prevent 16,000 injuries this year. He also estimated it would save $3.2 billion in health care and other costs.

“This is 1,000 people, every year, that will be with their families at Christmas that wouldn’t be there otherwise,” he said.

The survey monitored belt use at 2,000 sites. It has a margin of error of 1.2 percentage points.