From May 20 until June 2, state and local law enforcement agencies across the U.S. will be stepping up enforcement with the annual Click It or Ticket campaign, a concentrated effort to be on the lookout for motorists who are not wearing their seat belts.
“Click It or Ticket is not just about writing traffic tickets,” said Patrick Hoyer, bureau chief of the Governor’s Traffic Safety Bureau. “It’s about saving lives.”
In 2017, the most recent year for which the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has data, there were 10,076 unbuckled passenger vehicle occupants killed in crashes in the U.S. That number is greater than the population of Perry and of 99.5 percent of Iowa’s other towns and cities.
Hoyer mentioned some common myths about seat belts. For instance, some people who drive or ride in pickup trucks wrongly think their large vehicles will protect them better in a crash than other vehicles would. In fact, 49 percent of pickup truck occupants who were killed in 2017 were not buckled compared to 42 percent of car occupants.
Seating position is also a matter for myths. Too many people believe they are safe in the back seat unrestrained. The truth is that 46 percent of all front-seat passengers killed in 2017 crashes were unbelted, but 56 percent of those killed in the back seat were unbelted.
Similarly, people who live in rural areas sometimes believe their chances of being in a crash are lower, but in 2017 there were 12,786 passenger vehicle fatalities in rural locations compared to 10,316 fatalities in urban locations. Of those fatalities, 49 percent of those killed in rural locations were not wearing their seat belts compared to 44 percent in urban locations
According to the NHTSA, 48 percent of the total passenger vehicle occupants killed in crashes in 2017 were unrestrained by seat belts. Almost twice as many males were killed in crashes, and they had a lower seat belt use rate. It is even worse at night, when 56 percent of the fatalities were unrestrained.
“If you have friends or family members who does not buckle up when they drive, please encourage them to make it a habit,” Hoyer said. “It is such a simple thing to do, and it very well could save their lives.”
The Iowa Department of Public Safety and the Governor’s Traffic Safety Bureau remind motorists that seat belts save lives, and everyone — front seat and back, child and adult — needs to remember to buckle up every trip, every time.
