Buckle Up in Your Truck

Regional Campaign to Increase Safety Belt Use

          JEFFERSON CITY – The Missouri Coalition for Roadway Safety announced today they are joining forces with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, state and local law enforcement and highway safety partners from Missouri, Kansas, Iowa and Nebraska to launch an aggressive new public awareness initiative called Buckle Up In Your Truck.

“Pickup truck drivers and their passengers are least likely to buckle up,” said Leanna Depue, director of highway safety for the Missouri Department of Transportation. “Seventy-six percent of the people who died in pickup truck crashes last year were not wearing their safety belt.”Efforts in Missouri will be increased by expanding the Click It or Ticket enforcement and education campaign by one week and will include a focused effort on increasing safety belt use among occupants of pickup trucks. Local law enforcement agencies across the state will receive additional funding for officers to work overtime to assist in the regional effort. The enforcement effort will begin May 7 and continue through June 4, 2006 with a statewide safety belt usage survey to follow.   

“Our goal is to save more lives,” said Depue. “That means focusing our efforts on those who are at the greatest risk.”

Drivers and passengers in pickup trucks in Missouri have a much lower safety belt usage rate than the occupants of other vehicles. In 2005, the observed safety belt use rate in pickup trucks was only 66 percent compared to nearly 80 percent in passenger cars and 82 percent in vans and SUVs.