More than 15,000 passenger vehicle occupants in the United States died in traffic crashes between the nighttime hours of 6 p.m. and 5:59 a.m. during 2005, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) – and 59 percent of those passenger vehicle occupants killed were not wearing their seat belts at the time of the fatal crash.
The proportion of unbuckled deaths at night is considerably higher than the nearly as alarming 44 percent of passenger vehicle occupants who were not wearing their seats belts and were killed during daytime hours across the nation that same year.
That’s why the Charles County Sheriff’s Office announced today they are joining with state and local law enforcement and highway safety officials May 21 through June 3 as part of an aggressive national “Click It or Ticket” seatbelt enforcement mobilization to crack down on low seatbelt use and to reduce highway fatalities – with a new emphasis this year on convincing more motorists to buckle up day and night.
“Clearly more drivers at night than during the day are taking the attitude that ‘it will never happen to me,’ but the risk of a fatal crash actually goes up significantly at night,” Sheriff Rex W. Coffey said. “That’s why beginning mid-May, we began buckling down to make sure that all passengers, in all vehicles, are buckled up day and night.”
Sheriff Coffey said seatbelt use is the single most effective way to protect people and reduce fatalities in motor vehicle crashes. He said that in 2005, 77 percent of passenger vehicle occupants in a serious crash who were buckled up survived the crash, and that when worn correctly, seatbelts have proven to reduce the risk of fatal injury to front-seat passenger car occupants by 45 percent and by 60 percent in pickup trucks, SUVs and mini-vans.
Yet nearly one in five Americans – 19 percent nationally – still fail to regularly wear their seatbelts when driving or riding in a motor vehicle according to NHTSA’s observational seatbelt studies.
“Seat belts clearly save lives, but unfortunately too many folks still need a tough reminder so we are going to be out in force buckling down on those who are not buckled up,” said Coffey. “Wearing your seatbelt costs you nothing, but the cost for not wearing it could be your life. So unless you want to risk a ticket, or worse – your life, please remember to buckle up day and night.”
One hundred and eight Maryland law enforcement agencies will join more than 13,000 allied agencies in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico in an unprecedented enforcement initiative to increase seat belt use starting this week.
During Click It or Ticket, officers in Maryland will conduct more than 100 seat belt enforcement zones to stop and ticket drivers who violate seat belt and child passenger safety laws. In Maryland, in 2006, 60% of vehicle occupants killed in nighttime crashes were not wearing safety belts at the time of the crash; therefore, a special emphasis will be placed on enforcing Maryland’s laws at night.
In addition to the nighttime enforcement zones conducted during the heavily-traveled Memorial Day weekend, education will be conducted with an emphasis on pickup trucks, whose drivers and occupants buckle up less than those in other vehicles, and women, who are wearing their seat belts improperly, and thus not receiving the full protection that seat belts provide.
Maryland Click It or Ticket campaign coordinators are the MD