Buckle Up This Memorial Day Weekend
Memorial Day weekend is celebrated as the unofficial start to summer, which means more road trips, parties and fun – but also more car accidents and fatalities as loads of motorists hit the road. This year, AAA forecasts that about 33 million travelers will be driving during Memorial Day weekend, which starts May 22. This marks an increase of 5.3 percent over last Memorial Day.
AAA cites a tough winter and low gas prices for the rise in drivers. The national average price of a gallon of regular fuel is hovering around $2.66, about $1 less than last year’s price, and the lowest price Memorial Day travelers have seen in five years.
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“Following a harsh winter, many Americans are trading in their snow boots for flip-flops and making plans to start the season with a vacation getaway. AAA is expecting more Memorial Day travelers this year than any time in the past 10 years as confident consumers come out of hibernation ready to explore national parks, beach destinations and America’s great cities,” Marshall L. Doney, AAA president, said in a statement.
With the added drivers come extra law enforcement and safety campaigns. The Department of Transportation launched its annual Click it or Ticket campaign earlier this month in an effort to crack down on motorists who are not belted in the front and backseats. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 32,719 people died in traffic crashes in 2013 and around half of all front-seat occupants killed in crashes were unrestrained; 61 percent of those killed in backseats were not buckled. For young males and pickup truck drivers, those percentages go up.
“Regardless of vehicle type, time of day, or seating position, wearing a seat belt is the single most effective way to reduce fatalities in motor vehicle crashes,” NHTSA said in a statement.
Not buckling up in general is dangerous, but forgoing a safety belt in back puts front seat passengers at risk too. According to DOT, if a person is not wearing his or her seat belt in a 30-mph crash, the front passenger will get hit by forces similar to getting run over by a 3.5-ton elephant.
The good news is NHTSA reports that seat belt use has been slowly increasing since 1995, and in 2014, 87 percent of people buckled up, unchanged from 2013’s report. Don’t be a government fatality statistic. Buckle up.
