“Wearing a safety belt is the easiest thing you can do to protect yourself, your family, and friends,” Lt. Shawn Cook of the OSHP Springfield Post said at the start of the campaign. “Using a safety belt remains the single most effective thing you can do to protect yourself in a crash.”
Only about 5% of Clark County drivers do not wear seat belts, according to data from the past two years of Ohio’s annual seat belt study. Health District officials said this rate is good, “but it can be better. (That) other 5.4% (from this year’s 94.6%) still need to be reminded that seat belts save lives.”
The national seat belt daytime use rate in 2024 by adults was 91.2%, compared to 91.9% in 2023, and in Clark County that rate was 94.6% in 2024, compared to 95.7% in 2023. Those statistics are from Ohio’s annual Statewide Observational Seat Belt Study.
One focus of this campaign is nighttime enforcement, because national data shows a higher number of fatal crashes involving unrestrained passengers happen at night.
The health district, Clark County Safe Communities Coalition, Partners in Prevention, Links and Springfield Fire Division hosted a summer safety kickoff event May 17, which included food trucks and vendors, games and activities, watermelon drops to simulate an unbelted crash, a Links presentation on opioid use and trauma, resource fair and more.
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