The University Police Department is participating in an intensive campaign to ensure that students and faculty buckle up during their commutes. The program has been a success for the past 12 years.
Police are looking for violations on campus, though the traffic stops may be made off campus.
As part of the nationwide Buckle-Up Day And Night campaign, University Police will have special patrols out looking for motorists who are not wearing their seatbelts.
People not wearing a seatbelt are 30 times more likely to be ejected from a vehicle. Assistant University Police Chief Kevin Velzy has been involved with University Police for 30 years.
“Because we are a police department on a college campus, the majority of our drivers are of college age. We do have some older people, older drivers, that are employees or some people just passing through campus,” Velzy said.
According to the New York State University Police Department, motor vehicle accidents are the number-one cause of death for those up to 54 years old in the U.S.
It has been proven by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that just wearing a seatbelt reduces the risk of death or injury by 50%. As a matter of fact, airbags are not a substitute for seatbelts.
More than half of teenagers ages 13 to 19 and adults ages 20 to 44 who died in crashes in 2015 were unrestrained at the time of the crash, according to the CDC.
Men are more likely than women to be unbuckled, according to the CDC.
“The crashes have dropped. Our compliance rate, what they also look for in these grant programs, has gone way up,” Velzy said. “When we first started our compliance, rate was about 75%, which means 75% of the people that are required to wear a seatbelt in the front seat of a vehicle. Seventy-five percent of them were, and 25% were not.”
The compliance rate on campus currently lies at 93%.
A ticket for unrestrained motorists is $50 with no points initially added to the license, whereas distracted driving is worth five points on the license in addition to a fine between $50 and $200.
According to the NYSUPD, unrestrained motorists involved in a crash are almost four times as likely to suffer a traumatic brain injury compared to those wearing a seatbelt.
Photo by : Tomas Rodriguez l The Oswegonian
