Throughout the month of April, SUNY Oswego University Police will be participating in two widespread movements to promote traffic safety.
The first initiative, “U Drive. U Text. U Pay.” is aimed at promoting awareness of distracted driving, specifically due to interactions with cell phones. The second, “Click It or Ticket,” is highlighting the importance of wearing a seat belt in the car.
In New York, the second movement will also serve as a reminder that the state law has changed and now requires all passengers in the back seat of the car, regardless of the passengers’ age, to wear a seatbelt.
Both efforts were put out by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and will be followed by campus police at different times. The “U Drive. U Text. U Pay.” campaign will be the first to hit the streets, taking place from April 5-12. “Click It or Ticket” comes next, spanning from April 19 to May 3.
During these periods, campus police will be enforcing a zero-tolerance policy in regard to drivers on their phones or unbuckled passengers in the car.
“We have a lot of cars coming on and off campus, especially at class change, and the amount of pedestrian traffic is really our main concern because if you take your eyes off the road for a second, you don’t see that pedestrian trying to cross,” UP Officer Scott Maynard said. “And then we have a really bad day for us and for the families of both parties.”
During the last distracted driving crackdown in 2020, SUNY Oswego UP wrote 79 tickets over the course of just nine days. That number grew to over 100 tickets over the year.
Maynard added that one does not have to be texting to receive a ticket. If an officer sees a phone in the driver’s hand while the vehicle is moving, even if the driver is simply holding it, that still counts as distracted driving.
The “Click It or Ticket” campaign is equally as important to enforce. When an accident occurs, the occupant in the car becomes much heavier, and much harder to restrain without a proper seat belt. The occupant now weighs their actual weight times the speed of the vehicle.
Maynard used the example of a person who weighs 185 pounds getting into an accident in a vehicle moving at 30 miles per hour, that person then becomes the equivalent of 5,500 pounds, a weight that would be almost impossible to hold in place if the person is not wearing a seatbelt at the time.
“The seatbelt is designed to keep you in the seat. If you’re wearing it properly … if it is coming across at your shoulder [it will protect you]. In 2017, an estimated nearly 15,000 lives were saved from wearing seatbelts. That’s across the United States,” Maynard said. “The seatbelt shouldn’t hurt you anymore than what you already would have been. Some people are concerned about getting trapped in the vehicle with a seatbelt on, if that is a concern, they make tools you can cut the seatbelt with.”
During this time, there will be increased patrol cars being sent out explicitly to patrol the campus that will not be distracted by calls or other responsibilities. However, students should bear in mind that these laws will not disappear once the crackdowns are over, texting while driving and not wearing a seat belt are always chargeable offenses, and even more they may be potentially fatal.
Photo from The Oswegonian file photo 2020
