Buckle up every time

Published 9:55 am Tuesday, April 28, 2009

During the month of May, the Parenting Resource Center Safe Communities Coalition and Mower County Law Enforcement ask for your support during the May Safe and Sober Mobilization Campaign.

1. It is illegal for a person under the age of 21 to drive after consuming any amount of alcohol.
2. Passengers under the age of 18 must wear a seatbelt.
3. It is illegal for drivers under the age of 18 to use a cellular/wireless phone, whether hand-held or hands free.
4. It is illegal for drivers of all ages to compose, read, send text messages or access the Internet on a wireless device while driving.
5. In a car crash, properly wearing a seat belt reduces the risk of fatal injury to front seat passengers by 45 percent.
6. Driver error is the leading cause of fatal crashes among teenagers.
7. In a crash, getting partially or fully ejected from the vehicle is the leading cause of death for people who do not wear their seat belt.
8. Alcohol is a factor in 30-39 percent of traffic fatalities in Minnesota.
9. You are driving at 35 miles an hour and you crash into a parked car. The impact of the crash is the same as if you had fallen from a three-story building.
10. When in a car crash, three serious impacts are experienced by a driver or a passenger not wearing a seat belt: the impact of the crash itself (car against other object-another car, a tree, the bottom of the ditch); the impact of the driver/passenger against the items inside the vehicle (steering wheel, windshield, another passenger); and the impact of the driver/passengers organs against their bone structure (brain against skull, heart and lungs against rib cage).

Source: Parenting Resource Center

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Failure to wear a seat belt contributes to more fatalities than any other single traffic safety-related behavior; 63 percent of people killed in accidents are not wearing seat belts. Wearing a seat belt use is still the single most effective thing we can do to save lives and reduce injuries on America’s roadways. If 90 percent of Americans buckle up, we will prevent more than 5,500 deaths and 132,000 injuries annually.

Your business or organization can support this cause by placing “Buckle Up — Every Time,” and if there is room, “Toward Zero Deaths” on your signs, electronic billboards and in newsletters during the month of May.