[DOVER, DE] May 19, 2021 — During this year’s national Click It or Ticket seat belt campaign, which will take place May 24 through June 6, 2021, the Delaware Office of Highway Safety (DOHS) will be teaming up with law enforcement nationwide for a Border to Border (B2B) kickoff event taking place on Monday, May 24 from 3 pm-7 pm across all 3 Delaware counties. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is asking all states to participate in B2B, a one-day, 4-hour national seat belt awareness event on May 24, coordinated by participating state highway safety offices. The B2B initiative aims to increase law enforcement participation by coordinating highly visible seat belt enforcement for drivers throughout each state across the country.

Delaware Governor John Carney has supported DOHS’s ongoing occupant protection efforts by clicking into one of the recent safety awareness Seat Belt Selfie campaigns. Governor Carney demonstrated the proper way to buckle up in a motor vehicle (photo attached).

“Seat belts save lives, and this program serves to educate and encourage Delawareans to buckle up not only for themselves but also for their families,” said Governor Carney. “Studies have shown that children whose parents buckle up are much more likely to buckle up themselves. Make it a positive habit, and click that seat belt every time before you drive.”

Delaware’s Click It Or Ticket (CIOT) campaign will correspond with the annual national enforcement being implemented by state and local law enforcement agencies from May 24-June 6, 2021. In addition to the enforcement mobilization, DOHS will run simultaneous education campaign initiatives throughout the state via traditional media tactics such as billboards, statewide cable television, and broadcast terrestrial radio; digital media outlets including Spotify, Vevo, Facebook, Instagram, and connected television streaming apps; and will partner with local businesses to amplify the buckle up messaging such as tattoo parlors, hardware stores, outdoor boot camps, as well as extreme sports organizations, and venues.

Face the Facts

• The statewide seat belt use rate in 2019 was 92.5%, which is good — but we can do better. The other 7.5% still need to be reminded that seat belts save lives.
• 2020 saw a 53% increase from 2019 in unrestrained fatal and severe injury crashes in Delaware.
• Over the past 5 years (2016-2020), younger adults were the most likely to be involved in unrestrained crashes, with the highest number of unrestrained occupants involved being under 30 (53%), and in that group, occupants 20-24 being involved in the most crashes.

Bust the Myths

• Vehicle type: There seems to be a misconception among those who drive and ride in pickup trucks that their larger vehicles will protect them better than other vehicle types would in a crash. The numbers say otherwise: 58% of pickup truck occupants who were killed nationwide in 2019 were not buckled. That’s compared to 43% of passenger car occupants who were not wearing seat belts when they were killed. Regardless of vehicle type, seat belt use is the single most effective way to stay alive in a crash.
• Seating position: Too many people wrongly believe they are safe in the back seat unrestrained. Forty-five percent of all front-seat passenger vehicle occupants killed nationwide in crashes in 2019 were unrestrained, but 58% of those killed in back seats were unrestrained.
• Rural versus urban locations: People who live in rural areas might believe their crash exposure is lower, but in 2019, there were 11,971 passenger vehicle fatalities in rural locations nationwide, compared to 10,187 fatalities in urban locations. Out of those fatalities, 48% of those killed in the rural locations were not wearing their seat belts, compared to 45% in urban locations.

“Seat belts save thousands of lives every year, but far too many drivers and their passengers are still not buckling up, especially at night when the risk of being in a crash is even greater. With more people expected to travel on Delaware roadways this summer than last year, we ask that you help us to spread this lifesaving message. Seat belts save lives, and everyone — front seat and back, child and adult — must remember to buckle up,” said Kimberly Chesser, Director, Delaware Office of Highway Safety. 

In addition to public education and outreach efforts, DOHS will be hosting a first-of-its-kind seat belt riff video-making contest on TikTok called “Click-Tok.” The “Click-Tok” contest, which runs from May 21 to midnight June 2, 2021, encourages Delawareans to create videos using seat belt sounds, music, video, and an underlying Buckle Up message. Contest participants will be encouraged to join in on this new and fun opportunity through recruitment via Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok. The “Click-Tok” contest is proudly sponsored in part by traffic safety partner, AAA Mid-Atlantic. Three (3) contest winners will receive a prize in the form of a gift card.

For more information on the campaign, statistics, and education, visit https://www.arrivealivede.com/buckle-up/. From here, users can discover the Arrive Alive DE Visualizer Unrestrained Crash Tool which helps drivers visualize the impact unrestrained crashes have had on the state of Delaware over the past 5 years and test their knowledge about what crashing at various speeds feels like at 20, 30, or even 40 miles per hour (mph).

About the Delaware Office of Highway Safety
The Office of Highway Safety (OHS) is committed to improving the safety of Delaware’s motoring public by focusing on behavioral traffic safety issues, such as impaired driving, seat belt use, speeding, child passenger safety, pedestrian and bicycle safety, motorcycle safety, and teen driving issues. Follow the Delaware Office of Highway Safety on ArriveAliveDE.com, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat.

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