Seat Belt Usage Hits Record High for State; Part of TxDOT's Plan to Increase Safety

AUSTIN, Texas--Sept. 8, 2006--There's proof that more Texas motorists are buckling up. State transportation officials today announced safety belt usage in Texas topped 90 percent for the first time in history.

A record 90.44 percent of motorists are using safety belts, up from 89.9 percent last year.

Since enforcement and education efforts began in 2002, safety belt usage in Texas has jumped more than 14 percentage points. This increase translates into an estimated 1,200 fewer fatalities and more than 28,000 injuries prevented as a result of traffic crashes since 2002, according to transportation officials.

"Increasing safety on Texas highways is something we work on every day," said Hope Andrade, a member of the Texas Transportation Commission. "We are pleased that more and more Texans are doing their part to make our highways a safer place by the simple act of buckling their safety belt every time they get in their vehicle."

Transportation officials credit a safety belt awareness and enforcement campaign called "Click It or Ticket" with helping drive safety belt usage to an all time high in Texas.

The Texas Department of Transportation and its partners, the Texas Department of Public Safety and local law enforcement agencies across the state, engaged in the "Click It or Ticket" campaign last Memorial Day with a single objective: to watch for Texas drivers and passengers who were not buckled up and encourage them to comply with safety belt and child safety seat laws.

Texas law requires drivers and front seat passengers in all vehicles to be secured by a safety belt. Children under 17 years old must be secured with a safety belt or a child safety seat. A child under five years old and less than 36 inches tall must ride in a child safety seat.

A safety belt violation can result in fines up to $200, plus court costs.

Increasing safety on Texas highways is one of the five main TxDOT goals, along with reducing congestion, expanding economic opportunity, improving air quality and increasing the value of transportation assets.

"Helping people get in the habit of using safety belts is just one of the many things we are doing every day to improve safety on our highways," said Andrade. Among the TxDOT initiatives she cited were efforts to install safety barriers in the center median of divided highways, installing rumble strips along pavement edges, building wider safety shoulders, dividing busy four-lane highways, adding dedicated left-turn lanes at busy intersections and encouraging teen drivers to practice safe driving habits.

"Working together we can improve safety on Texas highways," said Andrade.