The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration this week is teaming with local law enforcement agencies for its annual “Click It or Ticket” campaign, which urges drivers and passengers to always wear a seatbelt while in an automobile.
Yesterday, May 20th, featured a nationwide “Border to Border” kickoff event, which aims to increase law enforcement participation by coordinating highly visible seat belt enforcement and providing seat belt fact sheets for drivers at heavily traveled, highly visible state border checkpoints.
According to the NHTSA there were more than 10,000 unbuckled passenger vehicle occupants killed in crashes in 2017, and more than 55 percent of those killed at night in wrecks were not wearing a seatbelt.
In Georgia 463 passengers were killed while not wearing seat belts, just under half of all Passenger Vehicle Occupant Fatalities for the year. 115 of those deaths occurred in Fulton County.
Georgia had 1,540 traffic fatalities in total in 2017, (a number which includes pedestrians) slightly down from 2016 but still more than any other year dating back to 2007. The state’s fatalities per 100,000 residents sits at 14.77, well above the national average of 11.40.
“If all passenger vehicle occupants 5 and older had worn their seat belts that same year (2017), it’s estimated an additional 2,549 lives could have been saved,” the NHTSA said in a news release.
According to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention seat belts saved nearly 15,000 lives nationwide in 2017.
