Special Edition May 2012

ANNUAL CLICK IT OR TICKET CAMPAIGN

INSIDE THIS ISSUE
1
2
3

National Seat Belt

Campaign
Your Passport to
Safety
G4S Policy on Seat
Belt Usage

Through the Memorial Day holiday, approximately 10,000 law enforcement

officers from coast-to-coast will be participating in the Click It or Ticket
crackdown.
In 2010, 22,187 occupants of passenger vehicles (passenger cars, pickup
trucks, vans, and SUVs) died in motor vehicle traffic crashes. Of the 22,187
total occupants killed, 9,934 were restrained. Restraint use was not known
for 1,706 occupants. Looking at only occupants where the restraint status
was known 51% were unrestrained at the time of the crash.
Seat belt use in 2010 reached 85 percent, up from 84 percent in 2009. This
result is from the National Occupant Protection Use Survey (NOPUS), which
is the only survey that provides nationwide probability-based observed data
on seat belt use in the United States.
SEAT BELT STATISTICS

In 2010, nighttime (6 p.m. to 5:59 a.m.) crashes had the highest

percentage of unrestrained passenger vehicle occupants killed, at 61
percent as compared to 42 percent of daytime crashes.
Data further shows in 2010 that the time block midnight to 3 a.m. not
only had the highest percentage of unrestrained passenger vehicle
occupants killed overall but also the highest population of passenger
vehicle occupants killed during nighttime hours of 6 p.m. to 5:59 a.m.

The risk of being killed in a crash is nearly 3 times greater at night

than during the day when only 25 percent of the miles are driven
(compared to 75 percent during the day based on distribution of
vehicle miles traveled).

Among passenger vehicle occupants killed, males were unrestrained

at a rate of 56 percent, 13 percentage points higher than female
occupants and 5 percentage points higher than the national
percentage in 2010.

Among passenger vehicle types (passenger cars, SUVs, vans, and

pickups) in 2010, 65 percent of pickup truck occupants killed in motor
vehicle traffic crashes were unrestrained, the highest percentage
among any vehicle type.

In 2010, rural areas had a higher percentage of unrestrained

passenger vehicle occupants killed in motor vehicle traffic crashes at
53 percent versus 48 percent in urban areas.

Continued on page 2

SEAT BELT USE AND BENIFITS

Research has found that lap/shoulder seat belts, when used, reduce the risk
of fatal injury to front-seat passenger car occupants by 45 percent and the
risk of moderate-to-critical injury by 50 percent.
For light-truck occupants, seat belts reduce the risk of fatal injury by 60
percent and moderate-to-critical injury by 65 percent.
Ejection from the vehicle is one of the most injurious events that can happen
to a person in a crash. In fatal crashes in 2010, 78 percent of passenger
vehicle occupants who were totally ejected from the vehicle were killed. Seat
belts are effective in preventing total ejections; only 1 percent of the
occupants reported to have been using restraints were totally ejected,
compared with 32 percent of the unrestrained occupants.
YOUR PASSPORT

LAW ENFORECEMENT

TO SAFETY

Read and understand

your post orders.

Understand the limits

of your duties.

Report any unsafe

acts or conditions to
your supervisor
immediately.

Understand and
follow site specific
safety requirements
and emergency
procedures.

If you try a seat belt fake-out, chances are you are going to get caught. Law
enforcement officers are trained to spot unbelted drivers at any time of day
and they do not issue fake tickets, said NHTSA Administrator David
Strickland. Seat belts save tens of thousands of lives every year and there is
simply no good excuse for not buckling up.
NHTSA studies show seat belt use among drivers at 84 percent for 2011.
Additional data show that seat belts have saved thousands of lives each year
nationwide. Yet in 2010 alone, 241 passenger vehicle occupants were killed
in traffic crashes during the Memorial Day holiday period. Nearly two-thirds of
these fatalities occurred at night between the hours of 6:00PM and 5:59AM
when the risk of being in a crash triplesand 66 percent were not belted.
G4S POLICY ON SEAT BELT USAGE
Drivers must always;

Ev er Alert , Alw ays Saf e

Wear a seat belt and ensure that all passengers do the same
No passengers should be allowed in a vehicle if there are not
individual seat belts/restraints for them
Similarly, no passengers are allowed to ride anywhere else but where
seat belts/restraints are provided (e.g. not in pick up beds, back of
van, etc.)

The Safety Matters is a periodic communications on safety issues from the G4S North America Safety
Committee. If you have suggestions for topics or issues you wish to have the Safety Committee address,
please contact Frank Knapfel ext. 6558 or email Frank.Knapfel@usa.g4s.com 2012 G4S