FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 14, 2003
State
Board of Education Supports Safety Belt Use; Tells Teens
of Law Enforcement Safety Belt Enforcement Crackdown
The
Illinois State Board of Education is strongly encouraging
safety belt use and informing students of Illinois’
law enforcement intention to crackdown on safety belt
violators.
Studies
show that the deadliest driving time for teens is during
the after school hours when teens are car-pooling home
or to after school activities. Almost 20 per cent of high
schools students report they never or rarely wear safety
belts when riding with someone else.
Combine
this low safety belt use with research that shows teenagers
are more likely than older drivers to speed, run red lights
and make illegal turns and it’s not surprising that
traffic crashes are the leading cause of death for 15
to 20-year-olds.
“Our
children and young people are our most precious national
resource. Unfortunately, many students are dying needlessly
in car crashes because they don’t to wear their
safety belts,” said Robert E. Schiller, State Superintendent
of Education. “In fact, data show that more than
half of all teens who die in crashes are completely unbelted
and that fatality rates for teens are twice that of older
drivers, ” he said.
In
2001, 3,608 teens, ages 15-20 died and thousands more
were injured in traffic crashes nationwide.
For
many non-safety belt users, especially young people, the
threat of a ticket has proven to be a greater inducement
to buckle up than the threat of injury or death.
“We
don’t want to see our students get a ticket. We
are hoping they choose to take the smart and potentially
lifesaving step and buckle their safety belt,” Schiller
said.
Additionally,
the Illinois State Board of Education, in conjunction
with the Click It or Ticket campaign, is
distributing educational packets to high schools throughout
the state with safety belt public address announcements
and other safety belt and safe driving information.
This
action by the Illinois State Board of Education coincides
with the Click It or Ticket May mobilization.
During the Click It or Ticket May mobilization,
more than 780 local, county, and state law enforcement
agencies will be implementing an aggressive zero tolerance
approach to safety belt violators with a high profile
public education effort.
The
Click It or Ticket Mobilization begins May
19th and runs through June 1st.
Download or View an Adobe Acrobat PDF document
with the "Morning announcements to be read in schools".
Download or View an Adobe Acrobat PDF document
with the "Letter for superintendents to send to their
principals".
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