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P.O. Box 7129
Boise, ID 83707
208.334.8005
Fax: 208.334.8563
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Idahoans encouraged to buckle up, Sept. 13-26
Idahoans will be encouraged to “Click It, Don’t Risk It!” Sept. 13-26 as part of a campaign by the Idaho Transportation Department’s Office of Traffic and Highway Safety (OTHS) to increase seat belt use statewide.
The campaign reminds motorists about the importance of using seat belts and making sure that friends and family also buckle up.
“As drivers, we must commit to protecting the people we love when they’re in the car,” said Mary Hunter of OTHS. “We must make certain that our children are properly secured in a safety seat that’s right for their age and weight, and insist that our passengers buckle up on every trip.”
Western states lead the nation in the rate of seat belt use, with more than 90 percent of people buckling up. Idaho’s 74 percent seat belt use rate lags behind other western states and the national average. During 2003, 63 percent of the 239 occupants who died in motor vehicle crashes in Idaho were not properly restrained. About half of those killed might have lived had they been wearing safety restraints, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).
Seat belts are the single best defense against serious injury or death in the case of a collision, Hunter said.
Here are some safety restraint tips:
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Infants up to 1 year of age should be in an approved, rear-facing safety seat, regardless of weight. Infants 20 pounds and lighter must be in an approved rear-facing child safety seat. All children 21-40 pounds must use an approved, forward-facing safety seat. Children shorter than 4 feet, 9 inches (or between 40 and 80 pounds) should use an approved booster seat. All children 12 years or younger should ride in the back seat, and never in front of an air bag.
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DRIVERS: Be sure to buckle yourself and the other occupants traveling with you. In an emergency, the safest place for you to be is behind the wheel and in control of your vehicle. You owe it to your passengers and other motorists to be belted into your seat.
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PASSENGERS: Be sure to buckle up every time you get into a vehicle. Your vehicle has safety devices that are designed to work with your seat belt to protect you. Even in a crash, you are safer inside the vehicle than outside, being hurtled onto the pavement, or into barriers or other traffic.
“Significant progress is being made through education and enforcement; however, Idaho is still losing too many lives and incurring too many costs because people not buckling up,” Hunter added.
Idahoans, not the crash victims, pay for 85 percent of all related medical costs, according to OTHS. These costs are passed on to the general public, primarily through insurance premiums and increased taxes. When crash victims are hospitalized, the medical costs for unbelted victims are 55 percent higher than for those who wear seat belts.
The “Click It, Don’t Risk It!” campaign includes paid advertising and increased state and local law enforcement patrols for seat belt violators. Idaho law requires everyone in a vehicle to wear safety restraints.