XENIA — As summer kicks off and families hit the road for vacations, the Greene County Safe Communities Coalition is reminding motorists to Click It or Ticket.
The public is invited to attend a free event for the 2018 Click It or Ticket Kickoff 10 a.m. Wednesday, May 16 at the Herman N. Menapace Health & Education Center, 1141 N. Monroe Drive. Presentations will be provided by the Ohio State Highway Patrol, Greene Memorial Hospital, State Farm, SADD, and the Greene County Safe Communities Coalition. Xenia High School, the winner of the 2018 Spring High School Seat Belt Challenge, will be awarded with a check in the amount of $500, sponsored by All State Agent, Scott Pauley.
Aimed at enforcing seat belt use to help keep families safe, the national seat belt campaign will take place Monday, May 21 through Sunday, June 3, concurrent with one of the busiest travel and holiday weekends of the year.
“Our law enforcement personnel see firsthand the loss of life when people refuse to buckle up,” said Jillian Drew, Safe Communities Coordinator. “It’s such a simple thing, and it should be an automatic next step after sitting down in a vehicle. As the Memorial Day weekend approaches and the summer vacation season ramps up, we want to keep our community members safe, and make sure people are buckling up. If the enforcement crackdown wakes people up to the dangers of unrestrained driving and gets them to buckle up, we’ll consider it a success.”
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, nearly half of the passenger vehicle occupants killed in crashes in 2016 were unrestrained. At night from 6 p.m. to 5:59 a.m., that number soared to 56 percent of those killed. That’s why one focus of the Click It or Ticket campaign is nighttime enforcement. Participating law enforcement agencies will be taking a no-excuses approach to seat belt law enforcement, writing citations day and night.
“Wearing a seat belt is one of the most important steps in increasing survivability in a crash. Our Greene County law enforcement’s job is to stop those who are not buckled up, and to keep them from repeating this potentially deadly mistake. Our job as a coalition is to make sure families are buckled up even before leaving the house,” Drew said.
“Buckle Up America! and commit to wearing seat belts on every trip, ensuring that everyone who rides in our cars is buckled up and that all children 12 and younger ride in the back seat in properly installed restraints appropriate for their age and size,” she continued. “Remember; never place a rear-facing infant seat in front of an air bag. Drivers and front-seat passengers should maintain at least a 10-inch distance between themselves and their air bags. While we cannot always avoid a crash, we can take the responsibility to do everything in our power to protect ourselves and our loved ones.”
For more information on the Greene County Safe Communities Coalition, call 937-374-5683 or email [email protected]. For more information on seat belt safety, visit www.trafficsafetymarketing.gov or the Click It or Ticket campaign, www.nhtsa.gov/ciot.
