A seat belt is one of those things in life that just doesn't make sense to about 40,000,000 people in the United States. After all, freedom of choice is the Free World cornerstone and when it comes to our automobiles, we want to ride them any way we choose.
"Liberty or death!" shouts a protestor on the nightly news. He values his God-given Freedoms to drive without fear of an illegal search and seizure. "The people," he contends, "aren't idiots and can govern their own safety." Courts determine whether driving without a seat belt is a Right or a Privilege, but "by God we will defend our freedoms 'till our dying breath."
Unfortunately, that's just what happens each year.
What these people don't realize is just what choice they are making when they drive without a seat belt wrapped around everyone in the car.
Government and industry have sponsored multi-million dollar safety seat belt awareness campaigns for decades. Usage has climbed, but only slowly through the years until recently.
It's easy to recognize at least one popular national slogan:
Buckle Up For Safety
Seat Belts Save Lives
Buckle Up America
Officer Friendly would appear in class to teach all about car safety. He didn't come into every room, so some of us were indoctrinated with second hand playground news.
State sponsored campaigns are less well known.
Missouri had the lowest state seat belt usage as the year 2000 approached according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Association (NHTSA). Only 60% of Missourians wore seat belts, so in a $300,000 concerted research effort, the State of Missouri studied advertising strategies that would appeal to all age groups. Radio stations received Public Service Announcements, 64 local newspapers printed press releases while two carefully selected slogans were printed on 26 billboards that read:
It takes 3 seconds to buckle up. Dead is Forever
You think a zit is bad? Try a windshield.
Did the State of Missouri reach the target audience?
Results: Seat belt usage among all age groups ...
Escalated to nearly 68% about equal to the national average at the time.
What was the real success?
Hundreds of lives were saved yearly and serious injuries were avoided.
"Click It...Or Ticket" kicked off in May of 2003 as the latest national seat belt campaign with a starting advertising budget of $25 million paid for by the US Government. That's a lot of money to begin an advertising campaign about seat belt usage. Was the purpose to really save lives, build up local treasuries, or just advertise? The results easily speak for themselves...
Safety belt use in the United States rose to almost 80% in 2004(the highest single year increase) up from 58% in 1994. An additional 10% rise in safety seat belt use could save an estimated 8,000 more lives per year and prevent more than 100,000 traffic related accident injuries.
It's estimated that more than 14,000 lives had been saved with seat belt use in data compiled by the NHTSA for 2002. And of the almost 33,000 passenger vehicle occupants who were killed during the same period 59% weren't wearing a safety seat belt. (NHTSA).
