In an effort to save lives and help improve vehicle occupant safety, the California Highway Patrol (CHP) is implementing a yearlong statewide campaign to encourage seat belt and child safety seat usage.
“Seat belts save lives and reduce the risk of injury during a collision,” said CHP Commissioner Joe Farrow. “If you are ejected from a vehicle in a crash, there is a good chance you will not survive. Why take that risk?”
The CHP’s goal with the Vehicle Occupant Restraint Education and Instruction IV grant is to reduce the number of unrestrained passengers – of all ages – killed or injured in traffic collisions throughout California. To achieve this goal by September 30, 2015, the CHP will host educational seminars, classes, and child safety seat inspections.
Funding for this program was provided by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Seat belts and child passenger safety seats may be the one piece of equipment inside a vehicle that determines whether or not someone survives a collision. Despite these lifesaving benefits and a law requiring all vehicle occupants in California to be safely restrained, hundreds of people are killed every year in collisions because they did not buckle up. According to the Statewide Integrated Traffic Records System, 25 percent of the 1,679 vehicle occupants killed in collisions in 2012, which is the most recent year finalized data is available, were not properly restrained.
