Far too many fatal and serious injury crashes are occurring on Ohio roadways. Wearing a safety belt can prevent serious or fatal injuries. Choosing to wear a safety belt is a personal decision, but Ohio’s safety belt compliance rate affects us all. Those affected may be passengers in the car with you, or other drivers on the road.
Wearing a safety belt is still the single most effective thing anyone can do to save lives and reduce injuries on Ohio's roadways.
On average, more than half of all Ohioans who die on our roadways in a motor vehicle crash are not wearing their safety belt. Most of these crashes happen within a short distance of the driver’s destination. Approximately 75 percent of fatal crashes occur within 25 miles of home.
There is simply no disputing that wearing a safety belt can save your life and reduce injury. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), wearing your safety belt doubles your chances of surviving a crash without serious injury and children who are in proper car safety seats survive 90 percent of crashes. It is estimated that safety belts save over 14,900 lives annually.
Ohio law states that no person shall operate an automobile on any street or highway unless that person is wearing all of the available elements of a properly adjusted occupant-restraining device.
Provisional data for 2006 shows 1,237 people were killed on Ohio roadways compared to 1,328 in 2005. State troopers continued the zero tolerance enforcement of safety belt violations in, issuing 124,686 safety belt and child restraint violations. In 2006, 66 percent of motorists killed in urban areas were not wearing safety belts, compared to 58 percent in rural areas.
The worst year ever for the roadway deaths was 1969, when 2,778 motorists died. The main attribute to the decline of deaths was educational programs and increased enforcement in accident-prone areas.
The What’s Holding you Back?/ Click it or Ticket campaign has helped educate motorists on the importance of the importance of wearing a safety belt. State troopers have a zero tolerance policy for safety belt offenses when motorists are stopped for violations and are not wearing a required safety belt or do not have children properly restrained in child safety seats.
Although we think it will never happen to us, traffic crashes are a leading killer of both adults and children. We cannot always prevent our involvement in a crash, but what happens to us during a crash is often within our control, if we buckle our safety belts.
Please wear a seat belt and insist that those who travel with you buckle up.
It is the easiest thing you can do to protect yourself, your friends and your
family.