CummingHome

This year Georgia law enforcement officers are again launching their statewide strategy to save you from yourself if you’re one of those death-defying motorists who won’t wear your safety belt!  Police will run roadchecks day and night this Memorial Day travel period to target drivers and passengers who don’t bother to buckle-up when the sun goes down. 

Police know 654 Georgians died here in 2006 because they didn’t click-it. No excuses. That’s why they ticket.  In 2006 alone, seat belts saved an estimated 15,383 American lives!  And yet, nearly one-in-five Americans still fail to wear their safety belts whether driving or riding.  The result:  An additional 5,441 lives could have been saved nationwide if seat belts were worn at the time of the crash. Half the Georgians killed in car crashes in 2006 weren’t wearing seat belts.  

Why at night? Because when national safety experts studied nationwide fatality stats hoping to save more lives they made a deadly discovery: The proportion of unbuckled crash deaths runs considerably higher at night because many night-drivers have apparently fooled themselves into believing they’re ‘crash-proof’.

“Every time Georgia law enforcement officers write safety belt citations during the upcoming Click It Or Ticket campaign, they’ll be thinking about the horrendous highway deaths here in May 2006 that might have had happier endings,” said Director Bob Dallas of the Governor's Office of Highway Safety (GOHS).  “It’s tragic to report, but 15 of the 22 Georgia crash fatalities from the 2006 Memorial Day holiday involved victims who weren’t wearing seatbelts.”

The alarming nationwide nighttime highway death toll in 2006 claimed the lives of more than fifteen-thousand Americans. NHTSA, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, has released startling findings that 64-percent of those passenger vehicle occupants killed during nighttime-hour crashes were NOT wearing their safety belts.

"Wearing your seatbelt costs you nothing, but the cost for not wearing one certainly will,” said Brian M. McLaughlin, the Senior Associate Administrator for Traffic Injury Control at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).  McLaughlin was in Atlanta for the kick-off of Georgia’s Memorial Day Click It Or Ticket campaign. "So, don't risk it with a ticket or worse, a life. Please remember to buckle up day and night - Click It or Ticket.

NHTSA research data shows the good news is, 72-percent of passenger vehicle occupants involved in serious crashes nationwide survived in 2006, when wearing safety belts correctly. Seat belts have proven to reduce the risk of fatal injury to front seat passenger car occupants by 45-percent. In pick-up trucks, SUVs’, and mini-vans properly worn seat belts reduce fatal injury by an amazing 60-percent!

But too many Georgians still need a tough reminder.  And Georgia’s “Primary Safety Belt Law” empowers enforcement officers here to write safety belt citations after simply observing unbelted drivers or passengers. So GOHS H.E.A.T. Units, State Troopers and GSP NightHawk Patrols will roll-out high visibility enforcement measures during the Memorial Day holidays.  Police from Good Hope to Glynn Haven.. And deputies from Miller to McDuffie County will be ticketing day and night. 

Since May also launches Georgia’s 100 Days of Summer H.E.A.T. speed and DUI enforcement campaign, H.E.A.T. Teams will also focus roadchecks on late-night safetybelt violators.  H.E.A.T. stands for Highway Enforcement of Aggressive Traffic.  H.E.A.T. is a multi-jurisdictional traffic safety enforcement campaign designed to safeguard the lives of law-abiding motorists during the major summer travel period from Memorial Day through the Fourth of July.