okiepony / Depositphotos.com
BEAVER CITY — The Furnas County Sheriff’s Office will be participating in the Make It Click enforcement campaign from May 20 to June 2, 2024.
Thanks to funding from the Nebraska Department of Transportation and Highway Safety Office, deputies will be working during this period to enforce seat belt and child restraint violations.
The overall goal of reducing the number of injuries in traffic accidents from not being restrained.
According to the NDOT, the national seat belt usage in 2023 was 91.9 percent and the Nebraska seat blet usage rate was 77.3 percent.
On average every 47 minutes, someone not wearing a seat belt dies in a car crash. In 2022, 11,302 people killed in car crashes were not wearing a seat belt.
Also in 2022, more unrestrained passenger vehicle occupants died in traffic crashes at night, 6,252 than during the day, 4,949. Additionally, 57 percent of passenger occupants killed at night were not wearing seat belts.
Among young adults, 18-34, killed while riding in passenger vehicles in 2022, more than half were completely unrestrained – one of the highest percentages for all age groups.
Per the NDOT, men make up the majority of those killed in traffic crashes. Men are also overrepresented in unrestrained passenger vehicle occupant fatalities with 54 percent of men and 41 percent of women dying without a seat belt in 2022.
