FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 24, 2002
CONTACT: SID GAULDEN, 803-896-8755

COLUMBIA - The South Carolina Department of Public Safety today, joined by Gov. Jim Hodges and national and local safety partners, announced the kickoff of Fasten for Life, a South Carolina public safety campaign that will begin Memorial Day.

“It is imperative that we educate our state’s citizens about seat belt usage while closely adhering to new safety belt laws,” said Gov. Jim Hodges. “Our goal through Fasten for Life is to focus on reducing crashes that cause the need for a safety belt in the first place.”

South Carolina law mandates seat belt usage for everyone. For people 17 and under, enforcement is primary, which means that officers may stop a vehicle and issue a citation when they observe an occupant 17 or younger not wearing a seat belt or secured in a child safety seat. For people over 17, it is a secondary law, which means someone must be stopped for another violation before they can be issued a ticket for not buckling up.

DPS is joined by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and local law enforcement agencies statewide in launching this enforcement and public education campaign. Television and radio announcements will begin airing around the state today and the actual enforcement campaign will be May 20 through June 2.

DPS has identified the top roads in each county for collisions resulting in fatalities or serious injuries and has further identified the violations cited in those crashes and victims’ restraint status. Officers will use this data to determine where to focus their enforcement efforts during the Memorial Day period, which begins the 100 deadly days of summer on our highways.

“Over 4,000 people have died on South Carolina highways in the past four years, and more than half of the motor vehicle occupants were unbuckled,” said DPS Director Boykin Rose. “Buckling up is a simple click, a five-second habit that means the difference between life and death in most collisions.”

Every hour, at least one person dies in this country because he or she didn’t buckle up. Seat belts are the most effective safety devices in vehicles today, estimated to save 9,500 lives each year. If 90 percent of motorists on our nation’s roads buckled up, an estimated 5,536 lives could be saved.

Information about the campaign and enforcement locations can be found on www.FastenforLife.com or from the DPS web site at www.scdps.org.

SI/61/02

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