As many people head "over the river and through the woods to grandmother's house" this year, the
Kentucky Office of Highway Safety advise drivers and their passengers to buckle-up as they travel.
“As traffic increases, unfortunately so do our collisions,” said KOHS Executive Director Chuck Geveden. “Last year in Kentucky, December ranked highest in total number of motor vehicle crashes with 11,907, resulting in 72 fatalities.”
Forty-eight of those killed in motor vehicles were not wearing seat belts.
Boyd Sigler, director of the KOHS Division of Highway Safety Programs, said many of those deaths could have been prevented if victims had taken a few seconds to buckle up. “Both drivers and passengers must realize that seat belts are the single most important safety device in the vehicle,” said Sigler. “Not only is it the law, but it’s your best defense against a drunk or distracted driver.”
Despite Kentucky’s primary seat belt law, Kentucky remains at the bottom nationally in seat belt usage rates at only 73 percent.
According to the
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, regular seat belt use is the single most effective way to protect people and reduce fatalities in motor vehicle crashes. Research has shown that when lap and shoulder belts are used properly, the risk of fatal injury to front-seat passengers is reduced by 45 percent, and the risk of moderate to serious injury is decreased by 50 percent.
“We want everyone on our roadways this Christmas season to buckle up each and every trip, day or night,” said Geveden.
There were 826 fatalities on Kentucky roadways last year, including 649 people in motor vehicles. Of those, 70 percent were not wearing seat belts.
“If you fail to buckle up, you run the risk of getting a ticket, or worse, getting killed or injured,” Sigler warned.
