From May 21st to June 3rd, local law enforcement agencies will be participating in a high-visibility seat belt enforcement campaign. During the national Click It or Ticket crackdown, local and state law enforcement agencies will have zero tolerance for unbuckled vehicle occupants, so buckle up.
To kick-off this year’s campaign, the Wyandot County Safe Communities Coalition again challenged high school social media classes to create 30-60 second videos highlighting seatbelt usage. The videos were judged by local governmental officials and Safe Communities partners, and winners in each category were chosen. “We want to thank both the judges and the Upper Sandusky High School’s media class for their participation.”, said Jeff Ritchey, the Wyandot County Safe Communities Coordinator. “The students did a great job, and we hope that as we share the videos with the public, they encourage seatbelt use.”
Based upon the judging of this year’s contest, Kelly Bather was chosen as the winner of the 30 second video challenge, and was awarded a gift card from Walmart. In addition to first place, Guardian Custom Glass provided traffic safety gifts for all students that participated in making videos this year.
One of the goals of the Safe Communities program is to educate the public on the importance of traffic safety, and clearly seatbelt usage is one easiest ways to protect ourselves while we travel. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), nearly half of the 21,441 passenger vehicle occupants who were killed on our nation’s roadways in 2015 were not wearing their seat belts at the time of the fatal crashes. In Ohio, of the fatal crashes that occurred in 2016, 431 victims were not wearing a seatbelt. This fact gravely highlights the need for increased enforcement and awareness of seat belt use.
To help us promote traffic safety in Wyandot County, we would also like to encourage the public to log onto the Wyandot County Health Department’s Facebook page throughout the rest of the month of May and share the students’ video submissions, and remember; Click it or Ticket.
