Friday, November 19, 1999

Caddo Parish Sheriff’s deputies will emphasize the use of seat belts and child safety restraints Thanksgiving week (Nov. 22-28) as part of a holiday season package of grant-funded programs that will add 150 hours of patrol time on the parish’s roadways.

Caddo Parish Sheriff Don Hathaway said his agency is working closely with the National and Louisiana Highway Safety Councils to focus public attention on overall traffic safety while targeting such specific violators as the drunk and/or drugged driver, speeders and those not using safety restraints.

"While the various grants are designed to target specific violations," Sheriff Hathaway said, "our deputies are obviously not going to ignore other violations when they are working grant-funded overtime. The overall effect of these grants will be more deputies on the parish’s roadways throughout the holidays encouraging safer driving and stopping more traffic violators."

In the first phase of the holiday package, Sheriff’s deputies are launching "Buckle Up Caddo Parish," joining the "Buckle Up America" grassroots movement. Nationwide, the campaign seeks to increase the seat belt use rate to 90 percent and reduce child fatalities by 25 percent by the year 2005 – saving the nation $8.8 billion, preventing more than 5,500 deaths and 132,000 injuries annually.

"Everyone pays the higher health care and insurance costs that result from unbelted drivers and passengers involved in crashes," Sheriff Hathaway said. "On average, hospital care costs for an unbelted driver are 50 percent higher than those for a driver who was wearing a seat belt. Taxpayers generally pay 85 percent of those costs, not the individuals involved."

Between 1984 and 1994, national seat belt use increased from 14 percent to 67 percent. With national use currently at 68 percent, effective law enforcement is critical to raising seat belt use rates. Sheriff Hathaway said all his deputies are carrying and distributing "Buckle Up America" leaflets that emphasize "There’s just too much to lose" by not wearing seat belts. Deputies are giving the leaflets to motorists in traffic stops, as well as other places where they come in contact with the public.

Among the reminders on the leaflets are the facts that:

– Traffic crashes kill more than 40,000 people a year nationwide and rank as the number one cause of child deaths.

– Every nine seconds someone in America is injured in a traffic crash and every 13 minutes someone is killed.

– Two-thirds of the drivers and passengers killed in traffic crashes are not buckled up.

– Every day in America, some 900 children are injured and seven are killed in car crashes. Half of those killed would be alive today if they had been properly protected.

Sadly, the Sheriff commented, adults who don’t buckle up are sending children a deadly message that it is all right not to use seat belts. Research shows that when a driver is unbuckled, 70 percent of the time children in that vehicle will not be buckled either.

"Chances are someone you know will be involved in a car crash," Sheriff Hathaway said. "If they are unbuckled, they are 50 percent more likely to be injured or killed. We are trying to raise awareness about the life- and cost-saving value of seat belts. We must begin by recognizing that wearing a seat belt is the most effective way to save lives and reduce injuries on Caddo Parish roadways. There is just too much to lose."