More than 100 law enforcement agencies throughout Washington are participating in extra patrols to target seat belt law violators. The goal of the project is to reduce the number of serious injuries from collisions by increasing seat belt use. Seat belt use has been required under Washington law since June of 1986.
Most Washingtonians wear their seat belt; in fact during the spring of this year about five of six people buckled up.
Research shows that properly wearing a seat belt increases a person's chance of surviving a collision by up to 70 percent. That means a person wearing a seat belt has a 70% better chance of surviving a collision than someone who is not buckled up.
Some people think that they don't need to wear a seat belt because they have an air bag, but just the opposite is true. An airbag can kill an unbuckled person. A teenage direr in Yakima was killed in a fender bender type of crash when her air bag deployed. She was not buckled up and the air bag slammed her head against her vehicle door.
About 630 people die each year on Washington's roads. Collisions are costly and society picks up the tab. Medical costs alone amount to about $276 million each year and your tax dollars pay 30% of those costs. An unbelted driver's medical costs average $11,000 more than those of a seat belted driver.
A seat belt ticket costs $86 and a driver can be ticketed for every unbuckled passenger in his car who is unbuckled.
So please buckle up. Remember, Click it or ticket.
The Facts
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