CHP: Wear Your Seat Belt, it May Just Save Your Life

More than 96 percent of Californians buckle up before they hit the road.

Although the golden state has among the highest seat belt compliance rate in the nation, the California Highway Patrol (CHP) would like to see 100 percent of the motoring public safely secured in their vehicle.

“It’s encouraging to see that the majority of the public are using seat belts or child passenger safety seats,” said CHP Commissioner Joe Farrow. “Ultimately, our goal is to encourage the use of passenger restraints by everyone in the vehicle and to let the motoring public know that by using a seat belt, they’re less likely to suffer severe or fatal injuries if they’re involved in a collision.”

As part of National Child Passenger Safety Week (September 18-24, 2011), the CHP has designated Sept. 21 as vehicle occupant restraint enforcement and education day.

This campaign wraps up the CHP’s yearlong, grant-funded California Occupant Restraint Campaign (CORC) II.

Throughout the campaign, a combination of seat belt and child safety seat usage surveys were conducted throughout the state, in addition to child passenger safety presentations. The grant also funded training to certify CHP personnel and employees from allied agencies to become child passenger safety seat technicians.

In addition to conducting community outreach and enforcement activities to increase seat belt and child restraint usage, the grant’s goals were to reduce the number of fatalities and injuries in collisions. Final collision figures from the CORC II grant period will not be available until next year.

“Seat belts and child safety seats save lives,” added Commissioner Farrow. “This is an important message that we want all drivers in California to know.”

The CORC II was funded by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.