During the month of November, Bonney Lake officers will be conducting a special traffic enforcement emphasis looking for seat belt, child safety seat and cell phone use violations.
Seatbelts Save Lives:
Wearing a seat belt decreases the chance of dying or being seriously injured in a collision by about 70 percent.
Regardless of the vehicle, seat belts save lives — In 2011, NHTSA statistics show that 21,253 occupants of passenger cars, trucks, vans and SUVs were killed in motor vehicle crashes nationwide— and 52 percent were NOT wearing seat belts at the time of the fatal crashes.
Teens and young adults are at higher risk — Among young adult passenger vehicle occupants, ages 18 to 34, who were killed in crashes, 64 percent were not buckled up—the highest percentage of any age group. The number jumps to 66 percent when only men in this age group are included.
The numbers change, the facts don’t — 53 percent of the 121,507 passenger vehicle occupants who were killed on our roadways from 2007-2011 were not wearing their seat belts at the time of the fatal crashes, according to NHTSA. Wearing a seat belt is the single most effective way to reduce fatalities in motor vehicle crashes.
Cell phone driving statistics:
Distraction from cell phone use while driving (hand held or hands free) extends a driver’s reaction time as much as having a blood alcohol concentration at the legal limit of .08 percent. (University of Utah)
The number one source of driver inattention is use of a wireless device. (Virginia Tech/NHTSA)
Drivers that use cell phones are four times as likely to get into crashes serious enough to injure themselves. (NHTSA, Insurance Institute for Highway Safety)
10 percent of drivers aged 16 to 24 years old are on their phone at any one time.
Driving while distracted is a factor in 25 percent of police reported crashes.
Driving while using a cell phone reduces the amount of brain activity associated with driving by 37 percent. (Carnegie Mellon)
Bonney Lake Police Officers for the month of November, 2014 will impose a no tolerance policy on these violations and will be issuing traffic infractions in an attempt to reduce injuries and deaths that result from motor vehicle collisions.
