Seatbelt Safety Is Focus Of CDOT "Quick Trips" Campaign

LAKEWOOD, CO – The Colorado Department of Transportation wants you to remember that "seat belts save lives, regardless of how long the drive." The agency is currently working on an education campaign to encourage drivers to wear their seat belts, even for "quick trips."

That's why CDOT has placed a "sculpture" at Bel Mar of a car crashed into a giant roll of toilet paper.

Since 1960, seat belts have saved 329,715 nationwide, more lives than all other vehicle technology combined, according to national tracking organizations. In 2017, CDOT said seat belts saved the lives of 226 people in Colorado.

“52 percent of collisions in the United States occur within a 5-mile radius of the home, and 69 percent of collisions occur within 10 miles,” said Darrell Lingk, director of the Office of Transportation Safety at CDOT in a press release. “We hope this campaign reminds people to buckle up even when running quick errands for everyday household items.”

“We have more work to do,” said Sam Cole, Safety Communications Manager at CDOT in a press release. “Fourteen percent of Coloradans don’t use a seat belt, so the goal of this campaign is to reminds drivers and passengers just how important buckling up is, regardless of the trip’s length or destination.”

Statewide seat belt use is 86 percent, which is four percent lower than the national average of 90 percent. CDOT believes that 70 additional lives could be saved every year in Colorado if everyone buckled up, the agency said.